Last week the Cameras for Asia: India classes moved to Rajpur, a place quite dear to my heart in north India.

I lived just near Rajpur back in the late 90s for a few years and I actually taught the two children of the principal of the school, hence the connection now.

The Moravian School has just over 300 students from kindergarten to grade 12. Many are from underprivileged backgrounds and the school assists their families with their education through to grade 12 and beyond. Most end up in colleges doing higher education.

What I particularly like here is that there are a lot of Tibetan, Ladakhi and other multi ethnic kids from around India and they are unfailingly polite. Most would come into the classroom with hands out to greet me and welcome me to the school, telling me what part of India they were from.

I took the classes for a week in a tiny room that served as the art classroom – there were no facilities, not even a desk for the teacher or for any of the kids who simply sat on pews. Still it was very functional and suited our purposes perfectly – the whole idea of Cameras for Asia is that it can be held anywhere.

We ran classes in their normal art times – 40 and 80 minute periods. On two consecutive afternoons I took them outside the school for an excursion through Rajpur village. This was greeted with the utmost enthusiasm and excitement – something you would see from grade 4-5 in the west, not from grades 9-12.

Many of them were quite imaginative and creative with their shots. Here are a selection of some of their images. I left some donated cameras at this school. Thanks again to St Aidan’s in Brisbane, Queensland for their generous donation of cameras.

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The Moravian School will be producing a calendar using the children’s images to sell to alumni next year for their 50th year celebrations. Visited Planet is also currently printing a calendar that will be available shortly. Please check back on the site regularly for updates about this.

Click here to read part 1 of the India project.
Click hre to read part 2 of the India project.

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This concludes this year’s Cameras for Asia: India project. It has been encouraging working in quite different centres in different parts of the country this trip from the coastal regions of south India to the central plains and the towering mountains of the Himalaya. I look forward to the possibility of returning again.

In early 2013 Cameras for Asia goes to Nepal and Myanmar.

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Feel free to email Jo at [email protected] with your comments/thoughts/photo aspirations. See and learn more at www.visitedplanet.com