.on hold

there have been some recent changes in our lives that have led us to make the hard decision of not leading a team to japan in may 2009. however, we are talking with our leadership to see if one will still be possible at a later date or if an alternative from the niagara region will be made available.

please stay tuned and email us if you have any questions!

thank you's for the show....

.the oakville show - - - a big thank you to Bill and Michelle at Kwik Kopy Printing in Niagara Falls, Brian&Jan at SpeedPro Imaging and Jamie&Roberta at Revolution Galleries for helping to make this show a success! and to Rachel at Global Youth Network, for making the sushi rolls for our opening reception!

the total of how much we were able to raise will be announced shortly.

Under the Risen Sun

OPENING RECEPTION : 19 JULY : 6-10PM

gallery hours: Mon-Fri, 3-9pm
Sat, 26th open at 10am followed by the...

CLOSING RECEPTION : 26 JULY : 6-10PM

global youth network is a non-profit organization that exposes & educates Canadian university students in international justice issues.

in may, Nathan & Tasha Hakeem, regional leaders for Global, led the first trip to japan with 4 niagara region students:
Christine Jennings, Intern
Kyle Jaster
Mary Anne Afable
Heather Leaver

Nathan & Tasha's passion for photography and Tasha's work in the past several years exposing issues on an international level was also incorporated into this trip.

the element of photography further exposes these issues & educates YOU.

raw horse meat.

nate and kyle ate RAW horse meat at sushi last night. just wanted to share. it's true. we have video evidence.

Christine

We have had a few days of rest from the heavier issues we have been exposed to in Japan. It has been a good time to collect our thoughts and process our experiences thus far. As a team we have been able to experience the beauty of Japan on our days off; myself and Kyle we went to Nikko which a 2 1/2 hour bus ride outside of Tokyo. It looked like Japan in historical movies, with the old temples and beautiful flowers and trees everywhere. Yesterday as a team we went to a festival in the streets of Shibuyaand stumbled into a Bob Marley festival and Jamaican flags everywhere, where Mary and I finally were able to get the Thai pants we have been dreaming about for 7 years!
There have been a lot of doors opening in Tokyo for us and therefore we have decided to stay another week in Tokyo and less time in Osaka before we head home. We keep meeting people and being introduced to people who have been trying to create some kind of awareness and assistance in the aream of prostitution in Japan. This has been an eye opening and amazing experience so far and I am looking foward to learning more. Thank you everyone for your support! xo

the reality of sex trafficking

to give you an idea of what it is like for the girls in the sex industry here in japan: http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/673/feature.asp

Chris

Today was the first day we dealt with the prostitution piece face to face. As a team we did learn some information before our trip and have met with a group here who have further explained the complexities of this issue in Japan. Today, seeing this issue in an area of Japan known for its higher "class" clients was definitely this most difficult part of this trip thus far. As I knew, it would be one thing to learn about the sex trade/prostitution and it would be another things to see everything up close. There was not much in action one could say in this area however, seeing how many places their were was something I was not prepared for. It was one place after another beside each other and in the alley ways. All the windows were shut off and their men standing in front of each door keeping their eyes on us. It was a dark feeling when you came up to the endless street of buildings with high end vehicals everywhere while catching a glimps of some what it looked like, highclass business men, coming in and out of the buildings while the men in the front covered their faces. As we walked past place after place and making eye contact and even greeting some of the men at door as one or two of them looked me up and down was the most difficult of all. In those moments I only felt on the smallest scale the dehumanizing feeling the women inside those buildings were dealing with every day. The feeling that you were a mere object-something to be bought and sold. The final hit to the day was when we were sitting across from some of the buildings was when the police drove by us and seemed to be more interested in us than what was going on inside the buildings, making it even more clear that these girls have no real protection from danger of what they do.