As refugees flee their homes, and home lands, they bring very little with them. Most of what they own is carried for miles on their backs. Few have anything, and many have nothing. However, there are a handful of people that are fortunate enough to bring some of there work tools. Salgado captures one such individual in Tanzania, who with the blessing of his sewing machine has been able to mend clothes, and sew tents for the benefit of the "colony."
This sewing machine is not only meant to display the helpfulness of such technology in the refugee communities, but to endow in the viewer, the desire to provide such a blessing. What Salgado attempts to display is the many talents, and qualifications of these refugees. All they need is the chance. In a very real sense, it is the microcredit idea, except, instead of just solving world poverty, we are solving lives. According to the Unitus home page, giving others opportunities, in and of its self, will ultimately offer "increased economic stability...the real possiblity of self-sufficiency."
Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. Web. New York, 2000. 178
"Innovative Solutions to Global Poverty." Unitus. 2010. Web. 18 Mar. 2010
I can't imagine how difficult it would be to have all my possessions except for what I could carry on my back taken away from me. In a very real sense, the only thing I would have left to own would be my family. I can't begin to even comprehend how hard life would be if all I had left was a sowing machine with which to make clothing.
ReplyDeleteWOW. I have to say that it was an utter surprise to see the man in the picture with a sewing machine. In most of the pictures we've seen so far the majority of people are left with completely nothing. Of course a sewing machine isn't much but I guess for this man it can be a saving factor.
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