Projects

HUMANITARIAN ART PROJECT HEROES

With my photos and projects, I want to shine a light on those who normally remain invisible. I’m not interested in the violence and negative circumstances but  I do focus on the power and the extraordinary strength children and women show in difficult situations. 

Heroes: The right to education…a matter of fact? 

This is a mark of honour to all the strong and at the same time vulnerable children who give evidence of an extraordinary strength in difficult situations. Through pictures and testimonies you get an impression of the daily life of street children. Street children are by definition not homeless or without family but they live in a situation where no protection, supervision nor guidance of a responsible adult is.

As part of the millennium development goals the general public is not only being sensitized but Heroes also wants to motivate the school going youth to make the most of their education and to see it as a springboard for their future career.

Several schools in Ghent participated in this project

Heroes: Stories of Love, Faith and Courage 

Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Americas after Haiti with half of the population below the World Bank poverty line.  Following earlier progress, in 2009, the World Bank recognized that Nicaragua had achieved Millennium Goal No 1 by reducing extreme poverty to 9.7%, a significant drop on previous years. These efforts have included reducing levels of malnutrition. For many Nicaraguans, the problems do not change substantially. Poverty is rampant — much of the population lives on just a few dollars each day, according to recent estimates — and unemployment remains high. Education levels are anemic, and violence from the region wide drug war is beginning to tear at the country’s edges.

Figures and facts seem to rule the world but what about the emotions, feeling of those who live in these extreme circumstances? How do they in real life, cooperate – survive? I’ve lived together with poor families. I slept with them, ate with them, lived the life they live. They treated me as a member of their own family. Due to the lack of material, their eyes are wide open and know the real meaning of happiness. Essential things in life as trust, love, friendship, understanding keeps them alive. Celebrating the ordinary.

In big contrast with Europeans whom achieved a luxuriously life, you can ask yourself what poverty really means.

This series zooms in on the daily life of a number of quaint families. It documents the lives of my beloved people in Nicaragua.  Via their stories, beauty and wealth receive a deeper meaning, and true luxury and inner wealth appear. It is a plea for purity. 

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THE BOOK

Heroes works together with the local organization ‘Las Hormiguitas’ in Matagalpa, Nicaragua. They fight for the well-being of street children and working children in Matagalpa, Nicaragua.

By purchasing Heroes Stories of Love, Faith and Courage, you are supporting Las Hormiguitas. The income is used to support this local organization in Matagalpa (Nicaragua) which encourage children of poor families to go to school, helps mothers to stop sexual abuse, informs local people about their human rights…