PROGRAM SNAPSHOTS

Picture Books: Teenagers’ Photos Inspire Children’s Books for Youth Across Asia

Program Year: 2020

What if the voices of children and young people held a meaningful place in the conversation about education programs that deeply affect their lives?

The Asia Foundation’s Let’s Read initiative in Indonesia worked with a group of 15 youth between the ages of 10 and 14 to use photography to document the impact of humans on their natural environment. Over the course of three workshops, they developed photography, self-advocacy, and communication skills giving them powerful tools to act as advocates of environmental change in their community. These 15 change-agents selected 23 powerful photos from the hundreds of photos they took to create a gallery that tells the authentic stories of their relationship with the changing environment.

As artists and illustrators sat down to publish a new collection of 10 books about the environment, they were surrounded by this gallery to inspire them and help them tell stories that authentically represent the children of Indonesia.

What do you see in these photos? How can you relate to their stories?