Zakira - the Image Festival Association

Zakira - the Image Festival Association is rated 3 out of 5 in the category civic & social organization. Read and write reviews about Zakira - the Image Festival Association. Zakira - “memory” in Arabic – is an all-volunteer organization devoted to the promotion of photography in Lebanon as an art form, a means of honest reporting and a professional skill. Zakira is the brainchild of photojournalist Ramzi Haidar who developed the idea for its first project while on assignment in Baghdad during the American invasion of Iraq. Haidar was moved by the plight of the Iraqi children: most of them had no intellectual or creative outlet to express their curiosities and frustration and assist them in surmounting the challenges they were facing. Seeing a similar plight within the Palestinian refugees camps in Lebanon, he decided to actively address it through photography upon his return to Beirut. With other photographers, journalists, artists and other volunteers, the group embarked upon their first project called “Lahza”, meaning “glimpse” or “moment” in Arabic. They conducted workshops in all 12 Palestinian camps in Lebanon teaching 500 young children basic photography skills. Zakira was born out of this first project with the mission to bring arts and culture to the children of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Since then, a book of the students’ photographs has been published, and the best have been displayed in exhibitions in Beirut and Paris. Zakira has since developed into an NGO registered with the Lebanese government. Whilst continuously developing new projects, its main activities are to organize photography workshops, as well as exhibitions for professionals and amateurs.