An L.A. publicist helps disadvantaged children get creative

    By Malika Zouhali-Worrall

    When Stacie Krajchir first visited the Duang Prateep Orphanage in Khao Lak, Thailand, she planned to make a brief stop and donate some clothes. Krajchir, 40, runs Bungalow PR, a Los Angeles firm that represents clients ranging from jewelry designers to pro surfers. In 2006 she was in Thailand on a brief sabbatical teaching English and art /to local children at a volunteer center established to help victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami, which had decimated Khao Lak, killing thousands.

    But her last-minute visit to the orphanage inspired Krajchir to help the children tap their creative potential. "When you're at an orphanage, you don't record your childhood memories," says Krajchir, who is also a painter. "Imagine not having baby photos or books. I wanted to blend my artistic passion with my desire to /help them create memories and have tangible things to look at."

    She launched the See and Sprout Project and returned to the orphanage in 2007 with 18 secondhand digital cameras, three donated printers and 800 sheets of photo paper. For two weeks Krajchir and two friends worked with the children, ages seven to 13, showing them how to use the cameras, frame a shot, print pictures and write about the photos they took.

    Five months later the See and Sprout Project exhibited the children's handiwork at the Grind Art and Print Gallery in L.A., raising nearly $7,000 from sales of the photos. The proceeds, she says, were deposited in bank accounts that she set up for each child photographer.

    Since then Krajchir has been working to bring the See and Sprout Project to needy children elsewhere around the globe. At the end of last year, she chose Sayulita, a small town in western Mexico, for her next project. She flew there with three friends/ to give local schoolchildren a chance to learn the art of photography. The results will be exhibited this June.

    Krajchir is busy planning future ventures. She's collecting used cameras and money /for a permanent after-school photography program /for the children in Sayulita and for a new project in South Africa, which she plans to visit next year.

    Going forward, Krajchir hopes to teach children that creative endeavors like taking pictures and interviewing the subjects they photograph /are marketable skills that can lead to a career in journalism, for example. "I want them to realize that it's not just about pretty pictures," she says. "You can also create a job out of it.