-- Duke Chapel will host "Faces of Freedom," a traveling photo exhibition documenting the lives and working conditions of children employed in rug factories in India, Nepal and Pakistan, from Jan. 20 to Feb. 24.
In conjunction with the exhibition will be a screening of the documentary "Stolen Childhoods," which chronicles the stories of child laborers in eight different countries. The screening is at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 24, at the chapel.
Suzanne Shanahan, associate director of Duke's Kenan Institute for Ethics, and Charles D. Thompson, education and curriculum director of Duke's Center for Documentary Studies, will lead a discussion of the film.
Both the film screening and the photo exhibition are free and open to the public. Visitor parking is available in the Bryan Center parking garage.
"The ‘Faces of Freedom' exhibit allows Duke Chapel to raise public awareness about exploitation in the carpet industry -- an industry that literally touches most of us in our homes and offices," said Christy Lohr Sapp, associate dean for religious life at Duke. "We are excited to share the good news of this work to remove children from dangerous situations and allow them to know the joys of childhood."
"For 246 million children, life is nothing but work," said Len Morris, director of "Stolen Childhoods." "The film asks us all to keep the promises the world community has already made: to provide universal education for all children, and to act against the poverty, profiteering and prejudice that produces this shameful waste of children's lives."
The "Faces of Freedom" exhibition of photographs by U. Roberto Romano is co-sponsored by the U.S. Fund for UNICEF and GoodWeave, a nonprofit organization that works to end illegal child labor in the rug industry and to offer educational opportunities to children in South Asia.