In 1998, Myrna Balk was invited by SAATHI, a non-governmental
organization in Nepal, to consult on domestic violence. While there,
she also taught at St. Xavier's College, School of Social Work,
and visited women's shelters. In Kathmandu, she spent a great deal
of time with Nepali women and girls who had been forced, for a
variety of reasons, into sexual slavery.
When she left Nepal in April, Myrna at first did
not realize the extent to which her life had changed. She went
to her studio and created a series of eight etchings that expressed
her outrage toward sex trafficking. After printing the eight etchings,
as shown above, Myrna was compelled to hear the stories first hand.
In her second and third trips to Nepal in 2000
and 2001, Myrna visited several shelters for former sex slaves.
Most of these girls and women have been victims of abuse and neglect
and/or rescued from sex traffickers. The shelters provide a variety
of services. One, for example, caters to HIV-positive trafficking
victims; another offers a six-month leadership-training program
for the women. Myrna was also invited by a college student to a
village in the area of Gorkha. The student wanted Myrna to help
tell the story of the Dalit, or low-caste, women.
Social workers often rely on interviews to gain
knowledge about culture, people, and situations. Myrna
felt interviews alone would not suffice. She also wanted to draw
with the women, many of whom were illiterate and unaccustomed to
putting their thoughts into words—especially when
speaking to strangers. "Art
can have a curative, self-expressive purpose, particularly when
there are no words to express the feelings. Art can also create
a 'safe' mode of expression, as the work is not necessarily identified
as autobiographical, thereby permitting anonymity and distance."
Confirming Myrna's hypothesis, the art sessions
had a transformative effect. Most of the women had never drawn
before and were initially self-conscious. They chose to begin with
plain paper and pencils, which felt familiar to them. But after
a few minutes, the women felt freer to use the rice paper and oil
pastels. They seemed to feel honored and nurtured by the process.
Myrna hoped that the participants would tell her about the finished
work, and they did so through an interpreter after each session.
The participants reported finding a voice through the drawing experience,
and they wanted Myrna to share their drawings with others.
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