by Diana Serbe
Women Who Light the Dark is a richly textured book chronicling the voices of women who are triumphing over difficult lives. The voices come from the darkest shadows of troubled areas around the world, but they speak of courage, dignity and hope, for at the core of this book, its very essence, is a message about empowerment. We can transform the world around us, says author Paola Gianturco whose spirit lights her own work. (click to meet Paola Gianturco)
Working with grantees of the nonprofit organization, The Global Fund for Women (see below), author and photographer Gianturco traveled, camera in hand, through fifteen countries to bring forward the voices of 129 women who brighten the world around them through their activism. Reflecting the author's respect for these people, Gianturco's photographs are most moving when she points her camera at a human face and allows the face to speak.
Gianturco does not shrink from relating the heart-rending problems that confront the people she interviewed, and those problems are legion - AIDS, poverty, rape, sex trafficking, the savage scars of war-torn countries. Her message is one of hope, however, for what she has found is the human spirit at its best.
Through these photographs we see the faces of women whose eyes shine with light. In the accompanying text, we hear them speak of of commitment, of determination in the face of obstacles. These are people who love life, and their words speak of confronting the obstacles in front of them so they may create change by their presence on the earth.
Allowing these women to speak for themselves, Gianturco elicits stories that reflect the power of the human imagination. In the face of the most hopeless situation, many of these stories tell us, imagination takes flight and a solution is born. Others illustrate the healing power of art. As ancient as time itself, the enactment of our human dramas through theater, music and dance shines a light on the dilemmas we face and has the power to affect change. One senses Gianturco's awe for the people who have used our most powerful human tools to face the direst of human experiences.
No distillation of so multi-layered book is possible, but in these pages you will meet a varied group of people such as these:
-Mu Sochua of Cambodia,. Fighting sex trafficking, she stands next to sex workers to bear witness to their pain. She has turned to political action and is one of 1,000 women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
-Amanda Centeno Espinoza of Nicaragua. Once imprisoned and tortured by Somoza's National Guard., she lost two brothers and several relatives to murder. Today she is the founder of Mujeres Constructoras, an organization that teaches indigent women the skills to tackle construction work.
-Rose of Cameroun. When two of her four children died, she adopted their families. Her small house now contains ten grandchildren and great-grandchildren who she cares for with infinite love.
-Inderjit Khurana of India. She began by working for Mother Teresa's home for the poor, but the true exercise of her imagination was to make education travel to its students by starting classes at a train station where "the most unreached children, unprotected, unloved, uncared for" were living in huts.
'Inspirational' is a heavily abused word, one that often is accompanied by drawings of cute little puppies and kittens frolicking in an Edenic world. There are no cartoon animals at play here, but we dare to use the word because this is a book that inspires to action. Women Who Light the Dark can only be called inspirational.
Your purchase of this book automatically makes a donation to the Global Fund for Women as the author has donated 100% of her royalties to this nonprofit organization.
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