Lensman’s exhibition raises cash for Amazon children

Jul 31 2007 by Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

School children in Nova Sociedade, part of the Amazon Footprints project, a fundraising exhibition by Merseyside-based photographer Colin McPherson _320

A FUNDRAISING exhibition by a Merseyside photographer has reached its target of providing a boat to take impoverished Amazon children to school.

Wirral-based Colin McPherson’s Amazon Footprint exhibition raised over £1,500 to buy the motor boat for Brazilian “riberinhos” or river dwellers, in the village of Nova Sociedade, on the banks of the Arapiuns, a tributary of the Tapajós in the lower Amazon.

It was delivered last week by local environmental campaigners, and local people held a celebration meal followed by a service of blessing and dedica-tion at their church.

“Previously, they only had a small paddle boat to take the children across the river to the school, which could often take 45 minutes and be very hazardous. Now it will take only 10 minutes and be a lot safer,” said Mr McPherson, whose exhibition at Elude, on Porter Street, Liverpool, featured photographs he had taken of Brazil’s Highway 163 in 2005.

This is a 1,000-mile long road which has become the frontline to save the Amazon rainforest from exploitation and des-truction by loggers, cattle ranchers, soy farmers and multi-national companies.

The photographs document the lives of those who live on or near the highway and whose way of life is chang,ing as rapidly as the environment around them. Each year thousands of acres of irreplaceable forest are lost and the impact on climate is incalculable, said Mr McPherson.

The Nova Sociedade children were also given a football, as they played us-ing a ball made from rags. “For Brazil, whose players are admired for their football skills, this was ironic and poignant too,” said Mr McPherson.

Amazon Footprints can be viewed at www.colinmcpherson.co.uk. Any extra money raised will buy more goods for Nova Sociedade.