We Need Your Help To Bring The Children's Moving Stories To Film

Very Exciting News! We have just launched our Indiegogo fundraising campaign to bring the WITNESS Project youth’s deeply moving stories and powerful messages to an even wider audience through film! 

WE NEED YOUR HELP to make this happen! Go to our WITNESS Project Indiegogo Page by clicking on the image below. Also, please share it with your friends to get the word out. All the tools are there for how to share, get perks, make a contribution, or simply follow updates.

If enough of us get behind it, we can make this happen for the kids and reach a larger audience to help stop the cycle of gender-based and child-directed violence. THANK YOU!!!

MCF and WITNESS Project mentioned in the Guyana Times today - Here's an excerpt and below is link to full article:

"...Children who experience domestic violence are at a higher risk for failure in school, emotional disorders, and substance abuse, and are more likely to perpetuate the cycle of violence. Overcoming the problem of domestic violence will prove to be difficult and a long-term challenge, but each and every one of us can help stop the cycle.

Last January, the embassy actively participated in the WITNESS Project – a campaign where Guyanese youths helped build awareness on domestic violence. Launched by the U.S.-based Margaret Clemons Foundation, the WITNESS Project engaged talented Guyanese youth to take photographs that became the basis of a city-wide poster campaign that sought to spark conversations on domestic violence and send a clear message: children are the most vulnerable and impressionable witnesses of domestic violence..."

http://www.guyanatimesgy.com/?p=1551

13 Guyanese in Lesley U Master's Program

Stabroek News Article in this past Sunday's paper about the 13 Guyanese students in Lesley U Master’s Program - made possible by MCF & The Ministry of Education:
http://www.stabroeknews.com/2012/news/stories/09/30/thirteen-guyanese-enter-boston-masters-programme-in-trauma-counselling/

Here's full article:

Thirteen Guyanese who have worked with families and children recently entered a Master’s degree programme in ‘Trauma Sensitive Assessment and Consultation’ at the Lesley University in Boston. The cour

se consists of residency classes both in Guyana and at the university’s campus in addition to online classes.

Tuition and travel costs for the programme which started in July were provided through funding from UNICEF and the Ministry of Education in Guyana.

Margaret Clemons, whose foundation,‘The Margaret Clemons Foundation’ (also referred to as the Witness Project) supports the programme, told the Sunday Stabroek that the participants were drawn from the various administrative regions.

Described as a “unique graduate degree that equips graduates to address pressing social issues” the one-year degree programme has a model specifically designed to equip individuals who serve families and children via government agencies such as the Ministries of Education and Human Services and Social Security, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Help & Shelter.

The programme is tailored specifically to Guyanese needs, and graduates would be equipped to bring improved counseling and support services to urban and rural communities in a bid to help eliminate violence and trauma in Guyana.

The programme aims to build the capacity of those offering protection and welfare support services to meet the pressing needs of Guyana’s youths. Graduates are expected to emerge not only as skilled mental health practitioners, but also as strong community leaders equipped to train others in their respective organizations and fields.

According to Clemons the programme requires two three-week residences in Cambridge as well as two-week residences in Guyana, and the lecturers will travel to Guyana to meet the students. In the period between residencies the students would be in constant communication by email with the faculty.

The Government of Guyana nominated the students for consideration and the individuals submitted applications for admission to the graduate programme at the university. All applications were screened and evaluated by university admissions and then by the graduate programme faculty, and qualified individuals were offered admission.

Clemons disclosed that the programme is currently structured to be offered in cohorts of a maximum of 15 students. She said that Lesley University would like to offer this programme across the Caribbean and this possibility is being explored.

“The curriculum has the flexibility to meet the unique needs of the group of students in a given cohort. In the case of the Guyanese cohort, prior to developing the curriculum Lesley University administrators met with government officials as well as prospective students to ascertain the curriculum content that would be of most benefit to the students who would participate. Further, the curriculum is designed in such a way as to ensure that it is culturally relevant and adaptable to the settings where the students are employed,” Clemons explained.

Expanding on the involvement of her foundation Clemons said that it provided the impetus and the original concept that an arts based counselling programme for mental health providers might be useful.

“[The foundation] introduced Guyana to Lesley and provided seed funding to facilitate initial collaborative conversations,” she told this newspaper.
She disclosed that some of the initial undertakings to move the concept forward included a visit to Guyana with Lesley Associate Provost, Dr Gene Diaz and Division Director of the Division of Expressive Therapies, Mitchell Kossak, in March of 2010 for the purpose of gathering information from stakeholders and gaining a better understanding of needs and of the current programming underway.

The foundation had also invited then Minister of Human Services and Social Security Priya Manickchand in 2010 to select four candidates from her ministry consisting of probation officers who were already working with children and families in crisis, including inmates from various regions, to attend the summer programme at Lesley University Peaceable Schools & Communities.
That programme, she said, was augmented to include a robust arts programmme not part of Peaceable Schools. The foundation had also invited a counsellor from Help & Shelter to participate in the fully funded trip to Lesley. The five candidates travelled to Boston in June 2010, stayed on campus in student housing and participated fully in the programme.

“It was exciting to see these talented professionals participating in the programming and also helpful in better understanding the tools that best benefited them in their daily work,” Clemons said.

She pointed out that introducing programming that is culturally relevant is essential to the success of any programme, and as a result on returning to Guyana the ministry’s staff delivered a version of Peaceable Schools to other probation officers in Guyana.
This was followed up by a visit in October 2010 by Manickchand to appear as the keynote speaker at the Lesley University ‘Artist & Activist’ conference. According to Clemons, the Minister’s time at Lesley was used “wisely and she sat in on classes of expressive therapies where ‘arts’ based techniques were incorporated into the curriculum.”

The minister also spent hours working with programme developers for the masters degree to address issues of cultural relevancy. In December of the same year the foundation sponsored Chief Education Officer (CEO) Olato Sam to visit Lesley University to continue working with programme developers.
“This was also useful and added perspective from the Ministry of Education,” the foundation’s head said.

When the foundation rolled out its ‘Witness Project turns Guyana INSIDE OUT’ poster project in late January 2012, Gene Diaz and Catherine Koverola, Dean, Graduate School of Arts & Social Sciences at Lesley University travelled to Guyana for the inauguration and to meet government officials and prospective students in order to move the programming forward.

“While MCF has been instrumental in bringing this collaboration to fruition, needless to say, Lesley University has believed in this project and worked diligently at delivering programming that will make the difference. That this programming is now underway is our (MCF) greatest achievement,” Clemons said.

http://www.unwomen.org/news-events/in-focus/ga-67/

Today two of MCF’s WITNESS Project youths in Guyana, Marcel Persaud and Danita Jaundoo, along with Program Director Rosheni Takechandra, went to visit Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana David Devine to interview him for the WITNESS Project weekly youth page. The youth are interviewing various people for articles they will publish in the up and coming weekly youth page in the Stabroek News. The youth page will include interviews, stories, observations, poems, artwork and photography all created by the WITNESS Project youths. MCF is really excited about the youth newspaper page opportunity that will give the youth a loud and public voice to express their ideas, thoughts, and feelings in a creative way, allowing them to get their message out about how violence is affecting them and empowering them to be a part of the solution. 

Marcel Persaud and Danita Juandoo wait to interview Canadian High Commissioner David Devine

WITNESS Project Program Director Rosheni Takechandra, Marcel Persaud, Canadian High Commissioner David Devine, Danita Juandoo 

We are going to start updating our blog soon! So much has happened in a year. We’ve been updating the WITNESS Project Facebook page with all the news and will get the MCF blog up to speed.

Today there was a great article in the Guyana Times about the work MCF is doing in Guyana to build the template that once established will be used throughout the Caribbean, then Latin America, and hopefully the world: 

http://www.guyanatimesgy.com/2012/09/09/mcf-tackling-domestic-violence-through-arts

For more exciting news that was not listed in this blog over the past year go to: https://www.facebook.com/WITNESS.Project

Project WITNESS continued

There are not enough words to thank Alysia Christiani for all that she did to make this program move forward. She delivered an incredible workshop for the children and for MCF. Alysia is Studio Manager at Sesame Workshop in New York but in addition to her management and organizational skills she is Guyanese American! She felt right at home in Georgetown!

The children broke into groups to work out the logistics of the photography assignment. Each participant was outfitted with a backpack, a journal, a point and shoot camera with video capability and memory card, a camera carry case and a t shirt and photography book. The participants were also given back to school pencils, pencil grips, paper clips, erasers and so on. Of course the cameras were the big hit!

Weekly meetings with Project Director Nancy Stevenson, Project Manager Alysia Christiani and Margaret Clemons in Central Park made the planning fun and easy. In this photo Kristine Morgan joined the planning team to offer ideas for the roll out in the fall. Kristine also served as a Team Leader for the project.

Minister Manickchand posed with the workshop participants all of whom wore the WITNESS T shirts. A big thanks to artist Vanessa Germosen for having designed a most incredible project logo!!! Check out the t shirts the children are wearing in this picture!

Project WITNESS launches in Guyana

On Thursday August 11^th, 2011 the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security in partnership with THE MARGARET CLEMONS FOUNDATION (MCF) hosted a photography workshop for 15 children and two artists under the project theme name WITNESS. Attending this breakfast buffet workshop at the Cara Lodge were fifteen children ages 11 to 17, two adult artists and one country coordinator selected from Child Protective Services, Help & Shelter, Varqa Foundation and the greater Georgetown community. Also in attendance as observers were Karla Daniels, Vice Consul U.S. Embassy, Dhanmattie Sohai, USAID, Margaret Kertzious, Director, Help & Shelter and Shirley Ferguson, Child Protective Services. MCF’s programming includes a train the trainer component.

The program’s primary objective is to draw attention to and spark conversation about the effects of adult human behavior, particularly gender based and child directed violence on society’s most vulnerable and impressionable witnesses, our children. The project is part of the global photography project by the French artist JR called “Inside Out”. MCF provided each of the 18 participants with point and shoot cameras, memory cards, journals and photography books. The workshop included basic photography instruction by Alysia Christiani the New York based Guyanese American and Studio Manager at Sesame Workshop. Christiani volunteered her time to travel to Guyana on behalf of MCF to deliver the workshop and is the WITNESS Project Manager.

The 15 children were broken into small groups of three and presented with various logistical and mechanical obstacles to overcome. With only two weeks to take a number of very specific photographs, obtain signed releases from the model’s parent or guardian, and deliver the photographs to the Guyana based coordinator for delivery to MCF in New York, each group had to develop an efficient system which was presented to the larger group for discussion. Additionally, all participants were required to answer a questionnaire about the program and to make suggestions on what can be improved upon.

The two participating artists chronicled the workshop by photographing the participants as they worked through the process. They will continue to chronicle the program as it unfolds over the next two weeks and again at the final roll out in late October when representatives of MCF return to Guyana to post the children’s photographs, which will have been converted into huge sized posters, in heavily trafficked areas of Georgetown. After the posters have been placed in and around Georgetown they will be added to JR’s Inside Out site and viewed by people from across the globe. The 15 children, 2 artists and country coordinator are required to participate in this final aspect of the program. MCF’s commitment to the participants includes providing transportation to anyone who may have moved out of town at the time of the roll out.

In addressing the WITNESS Project participants Minister Manickchand expressed the importance of utilizing all available resources including arts based programming to change the culture of violence directed against women and children. She said that by participating in programs such as Project WITNESS young people could finally begin to find their voices to speak out loudly against the violence that has infected Guyanese society.

We were deeply moved by the opportunity to work with these delightful children and artists and to be able to give these remarkable young children a loud voice through photography to speak out about violence. Our roll out in November promises to be highly visible and to create lasting conversation and then change. Moreover, we are delighted to work with all of the participants including the adult artists who are tasked with documenting the program's progress through photography. Additionally, all of the participants are required to fill out questionnaires throughout the program's 4 stages. The information garnered from the questionnaires will help us to determine the effectiveness of the program.

MCF FACILITATES MEETING BETWEEN GOVERNMENT OF GUYANA AND SESAME WORKSHOP EXECUTIVES

Ambassador Karran, Minister Manickchand and Sesame's Chief Operating Officer Mel Ming pose for a picture under Big Bird's poster at the Sesame Workshop headquarters.

On April 7th, 2011 senior executives at Sesame Workshop met with Minister Priya Manickchand of Guyana and Guyana's Permanent Ambassador to the United States Bayney Karran to discuss creating culturally specific educational programming for Guyana's children to target subjects such as gender equality, gender-based violence and child-directed violence. Programming would be created and delivered to reach, appeal to and be appropriate for children. The meeting was facilitated by MCF and took place at the Sesame Workshop headquarters in New York City. The discussions focused on how Sesame Workshop might contribute in a sustainable long term partnership with the government to air educational programs on the Education Broadcasting Television Service channel in Guyana. Sesame Workshop (www.sesameworkshop.org) is a non-for profit organization that addresses learning deficiencies and social issues across the globe through their famous puppets. The organization has touched millions of children's lives and has worked with governments and organizations to bring culturally specific educational programming to children wherever needed.

Bert and Ernie take center stage as Ambassador Karran and Minister Manickchand pose for a picture at Sesame Headquarters on April 7th.

(from left to right) Christopher Capobianco Sr. Director Project Management, Jorge Baxter Director International Research, Margaret Clemons President MCF, Alysia Christiani Studio Manager Marketing & Creative Services, Bayney Karran Permanent Ambassador to the United States, Priya Manickchand Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Charlotte Cole SVP Global Education, Lisa Annunziata VP Production Operations Global TV and Nancy Stevenson Director Character Design.

http://www.stabroeknews.com/2011/news/stories/04/16/manickchand-sesame-street-execs-meet-on-bringing-show-to-guyana/

Margaret Clemons attends OAS forum on women's leadership in Washington DC

On April 4th 2011 Margaret Clemons accompanied Guyana's Minister of Human Services and Social Security Priya Manickchand to the Organization of American States (OAS) forum on Women's Leadership for Citizen Democracy. The packed forum was held in Washington DC. Presentations and panel discussions included discussions on violence against women, women's rights, political leadership and representation and gender equality. Guyana's Permanent Ambassador to Washington DC, Bayney Karran also joined the Minister and MC.

Guyana's Ministry of Education dispatches Olato Sam to Lesley University to develop professional programming degrees

On November 29th Guyana's Ministry of Education dispatched Olato Sam, Technical Adviser to Minister Baksh to Cambridge, MA to meet with staff at Lesley University and MCF staff to discuss advanced training for Guyana's school Welfare Officers and Guidance Counselors. The trip was funded by MCF and viewed as a critical step forward in further professionalizing staff in Guyana who work in schools with children and families in crisis. Lauren Stevenson was present on behalf of MCF throughout these discussions to participate and to document the progress as the programming was discussed.


Margaret Clemons (MCF), Olato Sam (Guyana's Ministry of Education) & Gene Diaz (Lesley University Associate Provost) pose for a picture!




Dr. David Morimoto, Olato Sam, Dr. Michael Schindlinger and grad student meet and pose for this picture at the Lesley Campus.

Help & Shelter joins THE MARGARET CLEMONS FOUNDATION

THE MARGARET CLEMONS FOUNDATION (MCF) is delighted to announce our partnership with HELP & SHELTER, Guyana.

Help & Shelter (www.hands.org.gy) is Guyana’s most prestigious NGO whose efforts on behalf of women & children have reached into all 10 administrative Regions of that country. Help & Shelter provides a safe haven for women and children escaping violence at home. This wonderful organization operates on the highest level of internationally accepted standards for sheltering victims of violence, fostering awareness, providing community outreach and counseling and conducting research to name some but not all of the important work that is undertaken on a daily basis by this vital organization. MCF is thrilled to join Help & Shelter to end violence against women and children in all of its forms. MCF will support training programs for Help & Shelter’s social service providers and counselors, which may include Certificate Training Programs and Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs in counseling and expressive therapies which will help to further professionalize social services in Guyana. This training will initially be targeted at counselors and social service providers working with women & children and would include expressive art therapy approaches in which counselors engage clients in the healing process through the therapeutic use of the arts. Lesley University staff in a “train the trainer” model written to be culturally specific to Guyana will deliver programming and training.

Minister Priya Manickchand visits Lesley University

MCF’s vision to create advanced training programs for social service providers in Guyana’s Ministry of Human Services and Social Security culminated with a visit to Lesley University, Cambridge, MA by Minister Manickchand. This MCF sponsored working visit was designed to introduce the Minister to Lesley staff who will provide training to the Ministry’s social service providers and to show Minister Manickchand how arts integration in counselor training can work to enhance the delivery of services and particularly to women and children. The Minister observed a Master’s level course in expressive art therapy designed to address power, privilege and culture in counseling and over the course of several days met with Lesley University and

MCF staff to explore possible options for the design of the counselor training program. Minister Manickchand also described Guyana’s social services and articulated the interests of her government that all training be culturally relevant and have a train the trainer component so that capacity is built within Guyana to deliver and sustain training in the future. The Minister met with Lesley University president Joseph Moore who reconfirmed the University’s commitment to partner with the Guyana Government. Meetings were also held with Lesley provost Martha McKenna, Associate Provost Gene Diaz, Division Director of Expressive Therapies Mitchell Kossak, dean of undergraduate studies Mary Coleman and professor of education Marjorie Jones who is Guyanese born and who was formerly employed as vice chancellor and dean of the education faculty at the University of Guyana. Staff of the Margaret Clemons Foundation, who introduced leaders in the government of Guyana to leaders at Lesley University, reiterated that it would continue support of this emerging partnership and other activities that could help to end violence against women and children in Guyana through the arts.

In this photograph Minister Manickchand chats with Lesley University president Joseph Moore.

Minister Manickchand and Director of International and Collaborative Programs, Vivian Marcow-Speiser discuss Guyana’s social services with staff of Lesley University and MCF

Dr. Marcow-Speiser described how she helped to develop a similar counselor-training program in Israel, which now has a 30-year track record of success. That program was also designed as a train the trainer model.

Minister Manickchand talks with Lisa Donovan, Director of Lesley University’s Creative Arts and Learning Division and MCF president Margaret Clemons.

Minister Manickchand also met with Lesley biologists, David Morimoto and Michael Schindlinger who both serve on the Board of Directors of Exotic Wildlife Sanctuary, which provided the seed money and technical training to build the Mapaima Eco lodge at Nappi Village (Rupununi). Nappi Village has been recognized as one of Guyana’s premier places to encounter wildlife and the eco lodge now plays a pivotal role in supporting the village’s ability to create non-extractive income streams from tourism. Morimoto and Schindlinger lead Lesley students to Guyana every year in a course entitled ‘Field Experiences in Tropical Ecology’ as a way of increasing students’ global awareness of issues in biodiversity, development and human ecology across cultures.

The Minister was truly moved to hear the stories and witness the enthusiasm of these scientists and jungle adventurers/artists as they described their travels to the Rupununi. How could she not

be moved after hearing David Morimoto confess to her that he cried when he saw the Harpy Eagle in its natural habitat deep in the interior jungle of Guyana?

David Morimoto and Michael Schindlinger and students, who traveled to Guyana to study that country’s biodiversity, pose with Minister Manickchand.

Casey Grenier showed Minister Manickchand the photographs taken on her trip to the interior jungle in Guyana.

Casey Grenier, one of the students who participated in this program earlier in the year subsequently created a blog and posted the photographs that she took of the jungle wildlife in their natural habitat and the indigenous folk who hosted and guided them in and around Guyana’s pristine, wild and sensational jungle (http://guyanagrenier.wordpress.com). You will be amazed at the photographs taken by this talented amateur photographer and Lesley student.

Minister Manickchand invited as keynote panelist at Harvard University’s conference “Closing the gender gap: the business case for organizations, politics and society”

Staff at MCF contacted Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Women & Public Policy Director Iris Bohnet to inform her of Minister Manickchand’s visit to Cambridge and to invite her to meet with the Minister to discuss the Minister’s many accomplishments and

initiatives underway in Guyana in defense of women and children. This resulted in an invitation for the Minister to participate as a keynote panelist with Prime Minister Kim Campbell of Canada at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government’s conference “Closing the Gender Gap”. Secretary General of the Council of Women World Leaders Laura Liswood moderated the panel discussion. The Council co-sponsored the conference with Women & Public Policy at the Kennedy School. Minister Manickchand who is a lively, talented and thoughtful speaker brought new perspective to the discussion at the conference and was very well received by all who participated and by the media. Live blog coverage was handled by MSNBC.

Laura Liswood and Prime Minister Kim Campbell look on as Minister Manickchand speaks on the issue of quotas to the audience, which included professors, students, presidents and directors of organizations and banks, and business owners and CEOs.

Minister Priya Manickchand addressed this packed audience at the Kennedy School of Government while Prime Minister Kim Campbell listened in. Minister Manickchand posited that political power matters in closing the gender gap across the world and expressed the view that political power derived from political office has tremendous benefits one of which is to allow for the culture of a country to be shaped and changed by public policy derived from political office.

A private moment shared between PM Kim Campbell and Minister Priya Manickchand at the start of the panel discussion.

Minister Manickchand in an after conference interview by MSNBC live blogger.

Minister Priya Manickchand & South African artist and activist Hugh Masakela honored at Lesley University’s “Arts & Activism” conference.

During a two-day Arts and Activism conference on October 14th and 15th at Lesley University, Minister Priya Manickchand and world renowned jazz Musician and civil rights activist Hugh Masakela, were honored by Lesley University for their demonstrated commitment and leadership to advancing gender and racial equality around the world.

Minister Priya Manickchand posed with world-renowned jazz Musician and civil rights activist Hugh Masakela at a dinner held in Cambridge to honor them both.

MCF’s president Margaret Clemons introduced Minister Manickchand the morning of the keynote address. Minister Manickchand delivered the keynote speech for the conference “Arts & Activism” and spoke of her early years working as an attorney for Guyana’s Legal Aid Society, an organization that she has since expanded to 7 regions in Guyana. Her compelling speech touched the audience who in later workshops referred to her accomplishments as “PRIYA’S RADICAL LOVE AND LEGISLATION”.

Minister Manickchand told of her early years at the Legal Aid Society in Guyana.

She told professors, students, and professional counselors about the destructive effects of gender based violence, its causes and possible solutions. The Minister was adamant that an intensified global effort has to be made for gender equality using innovative means if the world is going to be all it is capable of being.

Minister Manickchand reflected on her accomplishments and on the many gender-based challenges that confront her ministry and all of our societies. The Minister also took questions from this highly engaged audience.

The Minister’s MCF sponsored visit to Cambridge held a duel purpose. The first was to honor the Minister for her leadership and for her many accomplishments in defense of women and children in Guyana. Minister Manickchand is a recognized champion and activist who has utilized her position at the helm of the Ministry of Human Services & Social Security to work towards eliminating violence against women & children, bring societal change with regard to gender inequality and move toward gender parity utilizing every holistic means available. She has become a highly visible advocate for change in the Caribbean region. Our second purpose was to work with the Minister to create the best possible program training to take to her staff in Guyana and to show her how integrated arts in counselor training can be used to better serve the women and children that her staff work with on a daily basis. Her trip to Cambridge was highly

successful in moving our programming forward and served to better inform us so that programming could be Guyana specific and relevant. We are now moving towards training a first cohort of 20 counselors from the Ministry and Help & Shelter beginning in June of 2011 as well as rolling out our Community Arts program.