News > Local
Author documents lives of children caught in war
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| Greitens |
By Susan H. Kahn
Assistant Editor
Eric Greitens, 32, has seen war from many angles. He has worked as a humanitarian volunteer, documentary photographer and researcher in Croatia, Rwanda, Zaire, the Gaza Strip, Albania, Cambodia, Mexico, Bolivia and India. In his new book Strength & Compassion, he has captured the lives of children living in these war-torn places.
Greitens will share his experiences at the Shaker Heights Public Library’s Nov. 24 “Meet the Author” program. The Jewish St. Louis native has visited Cleveland relatives often enough, he says, to call the city his “second home.”
The author’s globetrotting began soon after he graduated from Duke University and went on to become a Rhodes and Truman Scholar. In researching how humanitarian aid organizations work with children in communities where political upheaval has fractured social support systems, he traveled to nine war-ravaged countries. Wherever he went, Greitens engaged in volunteer work with young people – teaching kindergarteners and coaching soccer in Bosnia, doing art projects and tutoring street kids in Bolivia. In all these places, he took photographs.
Those photos, plus essays by Greitens, became Strength & Compassion. Paul Rusesabagina, manager of the Hôtel des Mille Collines in Rwanda (inspiration for the film “Hotel Rwanda”), wrote the foreward to the book, and Bobby Muller, co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, wrote the introduction.
Black and white images are organized into chapters, with titles like “Faith,” “Dignity” and “Hope.” Although a few of the mostly young photo subjects bear the obvious scars of war, Greitens has not focused on misery.
One picture in “Courage” shows a pre-teen Bolivian girl walking down the road outside her village. A baby is slung on her hip, and two other siblings hold onto her. Although she is perhaps only 12, she seems to be the caretaker. An image in “Compassion” shows three exhausted elementary-
age youngsters cuddling together on a park bench trying to nap.
“I tell stories of people who have survived the most difficult circumstances – how they have emerged with hope and dignity and what we can learn from them,” says the author.
Greitens has also seen war from another perspective, that of a soldier. After completing his doctorate, he became a United States Navy SEAL.
Greitens was deployed in Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, the Horn of Africa and Iraq, where his unit was successful in capturing an Al Qaeda leader who was planning a suicide bombing aimed at civilians. He earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart (he was hit by a truck bomb) for his service.
Back in civilian life, Greitens embarked on an endeavor that synthesizes lessons he learned over the last 10 years. Inspired by the courage of his fellow veterans, he used his combat pay to establish the Center for Citizen Leadership. The aim of the center is to provide fellowships for public service work opportunities for returning veterans, especially those who are wounded and disabled.
skahn@cjn.org
What: Meet the Author – Eric Greitens
When: Mon., Nov. 24, 7 p.m.
Where: Shaker Heights Library – Bertram Woods branch
Greitens will share his experiences at the Shaker Heights Public Library’s Nov. 24 “Meet the Author” program. The Jewish St. Louis native has visited Cleveland relatives often enough, he says, to call the city his “second home.”
The author’s globetrotting began soon after he graduated from Duke University and went on to become a Rhodes and Truman Scholar. In researching how humanitarian aid organizations work with children in communities where political upheaval has fractured social support systems, he traveled to nine war-ravaged countries. Wherever he went, Greitens engaged in volunteer work with young people – teaching kindergarteners and coaching soccer in Bosnia, doing art projects and tutoring street kids in Bolivia. In all these places, he took photographs.
Those photos, plus essays by Greitens, became Strength & Compassion. Paul Rusesabagina, manager of the Hôtel des Mille Collines in Rwanda (inspiration for the film “Hotel Rwanda”), wrote the foreward to the book, and Bobby Muller, co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, wrote the introduction.
Black and white images are organized into chapters, with titles like “Faith,” “Dignity” and “Hope.” Although a few of the mostly young photo subjects bear the obvious scars of war, Greitens has not focused on misery.
One picture in “Courage” shows a pre-teen Bolivian girl walking down the road outside her village. A baby is slung on her hip, and two other siblings hold onto her. Although she is perhaps only 12, she seems to be the caretaker. An image in “Compassion” shows three exhausted elementary-
age youngsters cuddling together on a park bench trying to nap.
“I tell stories of people who have survived the most difficult circumstances – how they have emerged with hope and dignity and what we can learn from them,” says the author.
Greitens has also seen war from another perspective, that of a soldier. After completing his doctorate, he became a United States Navy SEAL.
Greitens was deployed in Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, the Horn of Africa and Iraq, where his unit was successful in capturing an Al Qaeda leader who was planning a suicide bombing aimed at civilians. He earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart (he was hit by a truck bomb) for his service.
Back in civilian life, Greitens embarked on an endeavor that synthesizes lessons he learned over the last 10 years. Inspired by the courage of his fellow veterans, he used his combat pay to establish the Center for Citizen Leadership. The aim of the center is to provide fellowships for public service work opportunities for returning veterans, especially those who are wounded and disabled.
skahn@cjn.org
What: Meet the Author – Eric Greitens
When: Mon., Nov. 24, 7 p.m.
Where: Shaker Heights Library – Bertram Woods branch
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