Our Projects: Tenderloin After school Program, San Francisco [The Writing's on the Wall]
The Writing’s on the Wall
Tenderloin After school Program, San Francisco
June 4, 1994
Photos by Ken Smith
Dozens of children attended this event in the heart of the poverty-stricken Tenderloin area in downtown San Francisco. Gun shots went off during about an hour into the festivities, but the kids didn’t seem to be disturbed.
“It’s pretty normal around here for them to hear shots sometime during the day,” says Sebene Selassie, co-director, Tenderloin After School Project.
Children, such as Elise Fincher, 9, stayed focused on the task at hand. On her brick she wrote:
“People have got to stop cutting down all the trees. I mean, the ones who are only doing it to make money. I can understand that, but come on. We need the trees so we can breathe. I also think people should not throw away their food. There are people who are hungry, you know. That’s why when I grow up I want to be a lawyer, so I can make people act better.”
Fincher and the other children were happy to share thoughts like these with the camera crews that arrived halfway through the event. They showed a snippet of the event on the evening news.
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