The Through Her Eyes project was carried out for the first time in Ecuador and will be replicated in developing countries starting next year.  The project aims to document women of all ages, races, levels of skill and socioeconomic backgrounds and to present the thoughts, voices and faces of these women.  It examines and explores how involvement in sports affects development by expanding social opportunities and aims to show that women in every country, and specifically in developing countries, gain much more than physical strength when they play sports.

Through Her Eyes showcases these women in order to influence more women to get in the game and to bring financial support to women’s sports. We believe the project can create a new generation of women by sharing these images and thoughts, and by showing that sports can serve as a social conduit for destroying social barriers that many times restrict the role of women in their communities.

An exhibit of the photographs and film will be displayed in New York, Chicago and Ecuador in 2009.  

FIRST STOP, ECUADOR:

 

To launch the project I started in Ecuador, a South American country where women are playing sports, but where they also face social and financial barriers to sport.  I decided to start the project here because initiatives to influence and increase female participation in sports had been launched there in the past, ranging from seminars on women and sports to the creation of an all women’s sports facility. Additionally, the Ecuadorian Olympic Committee (Comite Olimpico Ecuatoriano - COE) was one of the first national Olympic Committees in Latin America to form a Commission on Women and Sport.

In 2003, I embarked on the trip to Ecuador to photograph and film the women who were playing. After making contacts with coaches, organizations and athletes across the country I began to make my way through the various regions to photograph, film, interview and play with the women of Ecuador.  I am grateful to the support extended to me by the team at the Ecuadorian Olympic Committee, especially Econ. Danilo Carrera, Sandra Lopez, Katty Garcia and Nancy Pallo.