SARKA VANCUROVA
photographer
Mc Dougald Terrace:
"Love amidst violence"
-work in progress -
Love amidst violence constitute the nation’s most domestic issue. Yet, except when violence erupts, people ignore its appalling realities. In Mc Dougald terrace, families live in cycle of despair – low paying jobs, violence, bad housing, worse education. All this traps those left behind as one aid program after another fall apart.
Photographic insight into the gun violent community intimate look into the lives of young single mothers( Kevinna, Shamiqua Lakesha ,LaToyia and others ) living and raising up their children in one of the most gun violent community - social housing project Mc Dougald Terrace in Durham.
Gang violence is very present and it comes to this community always from the outside. As a result of the police negligence and their fear , homicides are hardly reported and the murder poorly investigated. Residents call the neighbourhood "Young graveyard" as many innocent children have been shot here.
Violence basically affects the behaviour and mental health of the children and their mothers, and penetrates slowly inside them. Some of the mothers already lost their children because of the gunfire in McDougald Terrace and now trying to survive the pain that the death carries. Unfortunately, they cope with it by often falling into isolation, distress and mental instability.. Children are not supported in school, sometimes aggressive in their reactions, transferred to school for troubled children, and in later stage of the their life some join the gang due to a lack of future opportunities.
(by clicking on the picture, gallery opens in separate window)
1. View on one of the alleys in Mc Dougald terrace. Twin brother of Cassidy, Jay, plays outside during harsh winter day of February. Few days ago, he was placed in juvenile detention for stealing a car. His mother Toyia says that it might be even safer for him to stay there than in Mc Dougald.
2. Kalia and her friend play on the small hill of Mc Dougald. This little yard space is one of the safest from all places. There is basically nowhere to play for the children where could be safe. Just a few meters away, in the parking lot, son of Brittney was shot in the forehead on her porch just 3 years ago. Since this time, no child is allowed to play around there.
Makaila (15), her sister Makaya (17), and Makaya’s baby boy, Jaki (7 months), stand by the door, watching their brother Makai (13) as he leaves the house with his friends. Since becoming a mother, Makaya stays at home. Her pregnancy nearly cost her life due to excessive blood loss by child delivery. Lakesha, her mother, doesn’t believe in abortion, so she wanted that her daughter keeps the baby. In McDougald, teenage pregnancy is common, often forcing young girls to drop out of school, and raise
1. View on one of the alleys in Mc Dougald terrace. Twin brother of Cassidy, Jay, plays outside during harsh winter day of February. Few days ago, he was placed in juvenile detention for stealing a car. His mother Toyia says that it might be even safer for him to stay there than in Mc Dougald.