TCH News

Issue date: 11/2/09 Section: News

Media Credit: paula-allen.com

Imagine a place where 80-year-old women and five-year-old girls are being treated for rape. Imagine a place where women are forced to be sexual slaves. Imagine a place where your loved ones just disappear.

Sadly, this is the world we live in.

Paula Allen, a world-renowned social documentary photographer, introduced this grim reality to SCCC with her presentation "Against All Odds: Women Around the World Demand Justice."

Each of Paula's photos has a profound impact on the viewer. What is most remarkable about her work is its honesty and intimacy.

She uses media in a way that is not invasive, but rather, expressive of people's feelings. You can see the hurt, sorrow, anger, fear and hope in her subjects' eyes. Although Paula narrated the slideshow, the pictures told the story all on their own

Paula shared the horrifying stories of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who are victims of rape and are suffering excruciating pain while waiting months, possibly even years, to be sewn back together. To make matters worse, their hospital is in a region where war has been going on for almost a decade, and genocide has claimed more than 4 million lives, particularly those of women and children.

She also told of some of the nearly 20,000 women who were sexually enslaved by the Japanese Imperial Army from 1932 to the end of WWII. They were physically and emotionally scarred, with the emotional scars being the deeper of the two.

"Sometimes, I couldn't see the scars. It had been so long [they faded]. But they could still see them," said Allen.

The '"comfort women" kept silent for over 50 years. Those who were courageous enough to testify on their experiences asked for reparations and apologies from the Japanese government. Unfortunately, they are still waiting on both.

In one of the most bizarre events, a group of men vanished from Chile after the 1973 coup. In what came to be known as the "Caravan of Death," five soldiers traveled to the city of Calama, executed 26 men, and buried them in a secret mass grave in the desert. Paula joined wives, mothers, sisters, daughters and grandmothers as they set out with shovels to locate their loved ones.

After 17 years, the women finally located the mass grave site, only to find crushed remains. It was not until 34 years after the men disappeared that witnesses finally came forward, admitting the military had dug up the bodies and thrown them into the ocean.

None of these women were able to find the closure they were searching for.

However, through Allen's work, they have found healing. Through her efforts, they can be heard by the world.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Paula Allen's photographs have the potential to save thousands of lives.

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