The exhibit appeared at the Main Salt Lake City Library from October to December 2002, which an estimated 12,000 people viewed. The photographs were also displayed as part of Diversity Month at the University of Utah Social Sciences Building in March and April of 2003 and was the subject of a feature by the PRI/WGBH national public radio show “The World.”

“We were taken to the military by the government when we were 11 years old, at 14 you would go and fight. If you were shot, we would just leave you and ask you to please shoot as many of the enemy as you could while we run away. Bullets were dropping like raindrops, then they try to cross the river and escape the shooting, whole families, and they drowned. People died in many ways. I spent nine years in a refugee camp, every day you were hungry and thirsty. There was a school, but we couldn’t learn because we were hungry. Coming to United States was not easy, you had to pass an interview, and if you didn’t remember what to say you couldn’t go. Some told us that America is like heaven, so you didn’t want to fail the interview. So now I must make some money to pay my rent and food, then I save some to send back to them in Africa. If I could go to my Mom now she could not understand me because I no longer speak my mother tongue. Now I plan a schedule for myself. When I was in Africa I did not plan even three hours ahead because you know you could die anytime. My dream is to go to school and learn so that I can go back and help my people in Sudan. Now I must be a good ambassador for my country and also tell America about our problems.” Augustino Dut Kuol, from Sudan, now in Salt Lake City, Utah and working at a retirement home as an orderly while studying computer technology at night. Augustino recently learned that his sister, who he hasn't seen in 10 years, is in Colorado, and he’s trying to arrange to be reunited with her.

“We are happy that there is now peace in my country. But right now my life is here and I am just as happy that I am here with my friends.”

“Happy moments are everywhere. We even had happy moments during the war when we were being chased by our enemies.”

These are cousins from Bosnia. The man lost both of his daughters in one instant. “They heard a loud noise and they went out to look like all kids would. It was a tank and it opened fire on them. One, she was blown to bits; the other, just one small piece of metal went through her heart.”

“I sometimes wish I could go back to Bosnia ? it’s so green and everyone is so friendly compared to America.”

“This video of family makes me sad. It was made in Bosnia. Now most of these people are dead or have completely disappeared, we don’t know where.”

Flower Eyes
“It was the first day that he arrived and I wanted him to stay. It had just stopped raining and the light was wonderful. The war in my country is now over, everyone just realized that it was just stupid. Coming here nothing really surprised me. It was like I was born here, even though I have difficulties, especially with the language. We have a better life than many of the people born here who are into drugs, alcohol, and are practically homeless.”

(April 2004) The following photographs were taken by refugee teenagers aged 14 to 18 who are now living in Utah. Using digital cameras, refugee youth produced images that portrayed their lives, documenting the relationship between a refugee youth and his/her environment and helping them develop a “sense of place.” The result, titled “We Save Them, They Save Us?” was coordinated by John Schaefer, a nationally recognized documentary photographer and the director of Children’s Media Workshop in Salt Lake City (see http://www.mediadivide.org/refugee). When Schaefer handed the kids digital cameras, he told them to photograph what they saw in their life.

The exhibit appeared at the Main Salt Lake City Library from October to December 2002, which an estimated 12,000 people viewed. The photographs were also displayed as part of Diversity Month at the University of Utah Social Sciences Building in March and April of 2003 and was the subject of a feature by the PRI/WGBH national public radio show “The World.”

The exhibit was funded by the IRC’s Community Collaboratives for Refugee Women and Youth program’s mini-grants initiative, and the Children’s Media Arts Workshop.