How do you take the adage that sex sells, and use it to empower rather than enslave? After witnessing firsthand the plight of female Iraqi and Palestinian refugees residing in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, freelance photographer Kloie Picot initiated a new fund-raising project comprising a pin-up girl calendar featuring English teachers in Taiwan.
To promote the calendar and raise funds there will be a party tomorrow with entertainment by David Foster, A Moving Sound, Sheelah Murthy, Joseph Marchione and the Jojo Ma Quintet, and The Admissionaries, belly dancers, a burlesque show and live hip-hop from THC (H中P在台北). A midnight raffle will be held for prizes ranging from a painting by Thierry Noir (of Berlin Wall fame) to portrait sessions, workshops and a 50/50 draw.
While working as a freelance photographer in the Middle East over a six-year period, Picot was able to interact and speak with refugees. “I became aware that the children are getting little to no education [because] the host countries are not prepared to take in thousands of refugees into their already burdened school system,” said Picot, adding that she saw widowed women turn to prostitution as a way to make a living. She said when she discovered that they were “making their daughters do it too, as a way to make a living to support their extended families,” she decided to help.
“I want to help. I am single. I do not have children. I have the luxury to help,” Picot said.
Early efforts to sell photos of the refugees through shows in Taipei provided for some housing and basic needs for the refugees, but left Picot with the sense that more could be done. It was “not enough,” she said. “People have become numb to photos and the suffering they portray, it’s simply too easy to turn the page.”
Picot decided to use one of her strongest resources — foreign English teachers in Taiwan — to make a saucy pin-up-girl calendar to sell. “I chose the girls in the calendar because they are my friends and they said yes,” said Picot, an energetic redhead who exhibits a whatever-it-takes approach to fund-raising.
The Age of the Feminine — Foreign English Teachers in Taiwan 2010 Calendar features the amateur models, solo or in small groups, with each month portraying a decade from 1900 to 2010. Miss January (Karoliese van Rooyen) is shown as a woman from the 1900s, while Miss December features Kristen Adams and her daughter Trinity representing the year 2010.
“The calendar provides a way for foreign English teachers in Taiwan to fund-raise for a learning center for Iraqi and Palestinian refugees living in exile in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon,” said Picot. “Teachers in one country [are] providing students living in conflict areas with books, pencils and ultimately teachers.”
After working for the UNHRC, UNRWA and Medecins Sans Frontieres, Picot founded Crossing Borderlines to raise funds for a community learning center in Syria in which practical and educational skills will be taught that the refugees can use when they return to Iraq. She is also recruiting volunteers to teach various subjects to displaced persons. Ultimately she plans to provide visiting scholars and journalists with access to refugees willing to speak out about their lives.
“I thought that a way to raise awareness [in Taiwan] about the refugee situation would be to get my friends involved and asking questions. They in turn would have friends who would ask ‘well what is this all for?’” Picot said. “It’s a way to get involved with a situation few really understand or are aware of. We seldom hear about the plight of the Iraqi or Palestinian refugees.”
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