Feb 21, 2008 6:29 pm US/Central
Girls Use Camera Lens To Deal With Tough Issues
Project Gives Young Women Opportunity To Say What They Would Change If They Were President
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
For months now, we've heard the presidential candidates tell us what they would do to make the country better. Some teenage girls in Chicago have visionary ideas, too.
While the presidential candidates crisscross the country they surely could learn something listening to these teenage girls.
Better yet, Clinton, Obama and McCain could look at what the girls have done with small digital cameras.
"They deal with gang violence, they deal with poverty. They deal with immigration laws breaking their families apart and they got to talk about that. They got to show that through the photos," said Gina Marotta of Step Up Women's Network.
The girls are freshmen and sophomores at North-Grand High School in the West Humboldt Park community.
The Network urged the girls to take photos that reflect what they would do if they were president.
Diana Delgado's photo depicts domestic violence.
"It meant she's trying to break through something, break through something that she's going through," she said.
Cinthye Hernandez wants to the world to know about the gang violence right outside her front porch.
"While I'm sleeping the middle of the night I hear gunshots and I get scared," she said.
Two empty cowboy boots symbolize a father who is longer at home. Magaly Mendiola's dad was deported.
She would change immigration laws.
"It affects me personally. Due to the immigration laws I can't see my father. He's now in Mexico," she said.
The hope here is to develop the girls' ability to examine the challenging conditions that surround them.
"If they're going to grow to be women who make a difference in the world, they're going to learn through us to actually think of the world critically," Marotta said.
And they are helping others to see the world through the same lens.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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