Project Koraput: Going South

by Jen Saffron

Arriving in Delhi’s airport last night, we encountered a string of uniformed porters, drivers, and relatives, hanging over a rail like parade spectators, some holding paper signs with an expected guest’s name.  Our driver, Sanjay, held a sign that read, “Mr. Lynn Johnson” and after his look of surprise when Lynn introduced herself, we whisked off to the car.

Later that evening, jet lagged and hungry at midnight, Lynn and I ordered room service.  The lamb, nan, and wicked spicy cauliflower arrived for Mr. Jen Saffron and I signed.

Throughout the world over, social codes, mores and even laws dictate who are the served and who are the servers, and in the developing world, women are not the served.  This strata, illustrated the second we landed in India, is layered with complex social traditions and gender stereotypes that will deepen as we travel out of India’s capital south to Orissa, one of the top five poorest states on the subcontinent.  As Pastor Singh, our contact in Jeypore shared, women in his region are completely dependent and ruled by men.  In Orissa, chronic malnourishment impacts 48% of all women and their life expectancy is 59.

It is a known fact that the uplift of women in the developing world holds the key to improving the quality of life for billions.  Improving the status of women positively impacts children, families, and community development.  A woman who earns her own income reinvests up to three times more of her earnings into her family as compared to a man. UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, strives to identify key indicators for success in health, economic opportunities and self determination.

We also know that women in the developing world like India, while the least involved in causing the devastations that impact their lives, are totally beholden to these same travesties – violence, hunger, and climate change among them.  In fact, Lynn will continue from our journey to Calcutta to photograph among other projects, education and micro-finance programs for Ripple Effect, an organization of women photographers documenting the impact of climate change on women, and promulgating those images to help women become agents in turning the tide.

Arriving in Orissa from the comforts of our privileged American lives, how can we be of service?  Now it’s our time to be the servers, but that’s a choice, not a burden.   We’ll never have to be a beast of burden to an upper caste, and navigating the unknowns and realities around that should prove interesting as we begin documenting the resettlement of the Koraput Christian refugees in a couple of days.

Jen Saffron is a writer, educator and curator of photographs.  Lynn Johnson is a professional photographer. Both reside in Pittsburgh, and will travel to Koraput on March 14. Read about their experiences and check out their photography here in the Council Blog.  Find out more about their project, here.

Project Koraput, India: The Call

by Jen Saffron 

In 2011, photographer Lynn Johnson embarked on a trip to India, documenting for National Geographic’s March 2012 cover story.  Her journey enabled her to follow the Christian Apostles, including St. Thomas in India, where she documented refugees – survivors of religious violence now settled in the community of Koraput in India’s Orissa State. She discovered what other news sources, such as the BBC, had already witnessed: religious violence.  

Three years ago, the Christian village of Talagumandi was subject to a wave of violence plaguing this eastern, predominately rural area, with many killed and the entire village burned down and returned to farmland. The extremists demanded that the Christians convert back to Hinduism or risk death.

Those who survived fled to the forest and eventually wandered toward the village of Koraput, where they took up residence, and still live, as squatters in a collection of abandoned buildings.  Extremists seek to regain social control over this impoverished class, keeping them out of schools, and passing laws to bar them from community funds, property ownership, government support, etc. Their only advocate in the area is Pastor Debendra Singh, an Indian who leads a small congregation in nearby Jeypore.

Pastor Singh, 2011, Lynn Johnson

“Jennifer, I am mailing you $100 for that India thing,” my mother sighed through the phone, “and this is after Connie Peduzzi’s son asked me for money for the American Heart Association.  Everyone wants money from me and it’s getting really old.  I don’t know how to decide.”

“I know, I know, Mom.” I said, skirting the familiar Italian Catholic guilt trip.  She did, however, have a point.  How are we supposed to decide?

With close to one billion people going hungry and one in eight people lacking clean water, where is one person to start?  It’s a personal choice: our call to action and its terms, costs, and benefits.

When Lynn Johnson returned from her trip in India, she recounted the life-changing conversation with one young man, Anil, who was tied to a pole and beaten for eight hours.  After listening to his testimony, she made her choice to answer her call to action. Lynn invited me to come on her journey to help transform the situation for 500 refugees in Koraput.  It’s a place to start, and I said yes.

Anil, 2011, Lynn Johnson

We started talking with people, some we knew and some we didn’t, schooling ourselves in microloan programs for women, the history of the caste system in Orissa, and religious intolerance both East and West. We started G-Chatting and receiving updates from Pastor Singh.  We set up a bank account to handle U.S. donations for Koraput infrastructural necessities – such as a well – to lay the foundation for sustainable living.

Yesterday we received a snapshot of a land deed being signed. The refugees bought their own land as a direct result of money raised at fundraisers held here in Pittsburgh.

As trained photographers, people working in the field to write and document other people’s plights and triumphs, we are trained to observe.  We disappear into the background and watch, sometimes appearing with small notebooks, asking questions such as, “What is your name, how old are you, and where are you from?” We don’t get involved. In fact, we are trained how to assess sources and work from neutrality (or at least fairness).

When we return from the field to the “majority world,” we craft our observations and experiences into exhibitions, magazines, and installations designed to engage the consciousness of viewers, who are also of the majority world (you). This is an imperfect set-up as we all know. The oft-toted phrase “raising awareness” can offer a glimmer of shared experience, but then what?  Whose awareness are we raising? To what end?

These are the questions we’re taking with us as we embark on a new journey to create a community project based in a model of mutuality. Coming together with Koraput, we seek to create a new community, inextricably linked and moving forward, together – a seed of peace.

This is a lofty goal, it’s been a challenge to us, personally and professionally, and we’re going for it.

Jen Saffron is a writer, educator and curator of photographs.  Lynn Johnson is a professional photographer.  Both reside in Pittsburgh, and will travel to Koraput on March 14. Read about their experiences and check out their photography here in the Council Blog.  Find out more about their project, here.