Submission of the month

Sitta's Story

The Portland Upside
February 2010

Self-portrait photo by Sitta Cole, age 19

I was born in Liberia, Africa. My life with my family was good until the war. When I was seven years old the rebels waked my family up in the middle of the night. We walked for four days to Sierra Leone so that we would not be killed. For three years we lived in the refugee camp until we were allowed to come to the United States.

In 2005 I came to The Portland International Community School. The teachers treated me with love and respect and taught me things I did not know before.

I came to Focus on Youth in 2008 and started learning photography. The beauty I see and am able to photograph makes me forget the painful things that happened in Liberia.
_____

Focus On Youth was started six years ago as a way to keep at-risk youth on the path to graduation using photography and mentoring. http://focusonyouth.org