FOTOKIDS INC
PO Box 661447, Miami Springs, FL 33266 www.fotokidsoriginal.org

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Organizations Filed Purposes: Since its inception in 1991, Fotokids (originally under our fiscal sponsor, the San Carlos Foundation) has utilized photography, graphic design and media technology as tools for self-expression, creativity, leadership and vocational training experience with hundreds of youth from poor rural and urban areas. The majority of our students, in addition to learning employable skills with Fotokids, receive scholarships to study in formal schools from the level of primary education through university.

Fourteen students from Guatemala City and Santiago Atitlán graduated in 2019 after 9 to 10 years in the Fotokids program with a portfolio that focused on job skills that will set them apart from the 200,000 young people entering the work force every year and will put them in the 20% that actually find employment. Their portfolios include the work they have done for actual clients, editorial and event photography, the designing and photographing of a commercial catalogue, and the creation of a web page. Guatemala City is the hub for all of our programs throughout Guatemala and all of our staff are graduates, we run an intern program for the teenage students that provides them with on the job training and experience working with real clients. Fotokids also provides through Fundación de Niños Artistas de Guatemala, counseling, tutoring, food baskets, nutritious lunches, transportation and experience working with international professionals in photography and design. Jakaramba our design team filmed a web video for a non-profit on empowering rural indigenous communities in Guatemala to participate in health planning and monitoring in order to demand accountability from public health authorities. We took on 46 new students this year from Mesquital and we provided 50 school scholarships for the 113 students, middle school through university, we have already enrolled at this point. a. Our graduate students have gotten jobs this year as a video editors, Photographers for international cultural institute, call centers, and one young woman has been awarded first prize from 139 entries in a national competition for her graphic design for a Guatemalan retailer. In the last five years graduates have gotten work at Avianca Airlines, received degrees in social work, political science/law degree, communications, ESL teachers, is finishing her last year in film school and has been already working freelance in various productions, another is working in video, doing weddings, publicity and works for German Embassy and another is now in charge as the educational coordinator for Cuarto Mundo a French charity that gives art classes to kids that work in the markets. Believing that it is essential to reach the children and formulate values before they are recruited by gangs, Fotokids continued the new class for 6th graders in Mesquital, and addTed two in Boca del Monte, both dangerous barrios of Guatemala City where many families have fled due to gang violence and extortions. Students from our Guatemala City program exhibited of their work at SUNY Old Westbury and attended a student symposium. A smaller exhibit was given in Orinda California New York and Sedona Az.Individual students exhibited work in Rome and a Fotokids crew produced three videos for publication by Oxford University Press.

Santiago Atitlán-1997 to present: This year with the increase in demand for Fotokids teaching , we had a waiting list of 100 children, and therefore we began construction on a new school house to expand our program and our space. Our program in this poverty stricken Tzutuhil village began in 1997 as noted in 4a, Under the Shadows project, that examined the effects of the war years on children in rural communities around the country. Some of the students who took part in the original program now work for the Commission on Human Rights and study journalism and law in university. Others, who received training in photography, digital story development and graphic design, went on to work for the organization's design studio, Jakaramba! Additional Tzutuhil Fotokids graduates serve as teachers in Santiago Atitlán, training young students from primary school onwards in the basics of photography, Photoshop and graphic design and critical thinking. They are part of the Fotokids scholarship program. This year the students again worked with international photography mentors to build up their portfolios. They continue to study contemporary art history and Adobe Illustrator and Indesign. A new program was added with 46 new children (5th and 6th graders) who are studying the ecology of Lake Atitlan and trained as proactive leaders to spread environmental education. We currently work with 56 children and have instituted a lunch program and food distribution to families in crisis. One of our graduates, now on staff, received her degree this year in social work from Guatemala's San Carlos University and works with our families in the program

Girls Life skills The Girls Life Skills project has expanded to include boys. Without male education in equal rights young women's advancement would be minimal at best. It is from this program that we have 10 graduates from Guatemala City and 6 from Santiago Atitlán. This has given our high school age youth a chance to get jobs with their Fotokids diploma in technology and the media arts vastly expanding their horizons. The group is focusing on improving their photo portfolios through classes and workshops with international professionals that cover both basic and advanced use of the DSLR camera, portraiture, landscape, HDR, Photoshop InDesign, and promotion and design of online portfolios.The 16 students in this program have already secured and worked for real clients. They spent a week in Santiago Atitlán with professional photographers from the U.S. learning new photographic and design techniques, attending lectures by outstanding Guatemalan photographers and bolstering their portfolios with new work.

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