Every year, thousands of women and young girls migrate from Ghana’s poorer, Muslim north to the major cities of the Christian south. Known as Kayayo, they travel to work as porters in city markets, and spend their days carrying heavy loads for meager wages. Due to a shortage of employment opportunities and money for housing, many end up sleeping on the streets or being coerced into sexual servitude in exchange for shelter.
The Traveling Mirror and a Fitting Goodbye
Published January 6, 2010
As Alicia said - it's like creating mirrors.
This past November, I traveled from village to village in Ghana's Northern Region. With me were filmmaker Alicia Sully and Peace Corps Volunteer Leader Allison Terry. In 19 villages, reaching over 10,000 people, we showed a slideshow of my Kayayo photos and Alicia's feature film on the same topic. The film was written by Ghanaian villagers, based on their own experiences - they also starred in it and directed it. Both of our pieces were in Dagbanli, the local language.
Other than some crude English subtitles, the Kayayo Multimedia Outreach was created completely for Ghanaians.
The day after each video showing, we gathered a mix of people to discuss what they had seen. Many of them will go their entire lives without seeing city life firsthand; for others it is all too familiar. They viewed our work with a mix of intrigue, revulsion, pity, anger, and an occasional laugh. School children asked us how they could avoid having to travel south for money. Adults were appalled at the behavior of the youth. And, as for the young women we were portraying, who had traveled south in the past - they argued that there was no alternative for them.
This film was created by Chicago Public School students working with Free Spirit Media, in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.
Lauryn and Janay from School Without Walls in Washington, DC report on Teenage Prostitution in the US.
Gateways
Grantee
Peter DiCampo is a documentary photographer whose goal is to contribute his work to a dialogue on international development. He launched his freelance career while also working as a Peace Corps...
