2006

• The idea for PROOF was conceived at a photojournalism conference when founders Leora Kahn and Collin Finley met and decided to bring attention to the issue of genocide in Darfur with the power of photography.

2007

•   PROOF partnered with Amnesty International to produce a book on Darfur; “Darfur: Twenty Years of War and Genocide in Sudan”.   Amnesty International created a curriculum for high school students based on the book.

•  PROOF partnered with the Holocaust Museum of Houston to create the exhibition “Darfur: Photo Journalists Respond”. These 25 images vividly represented the reality of genocide. The people in the photographs are a reminder of life’s beauty and preciousness. The exhibit informed viewers but also inspired them to take action.

•  In 2007, the prosecutor of the International Criminal court came to PROOF with the idea of creating a book on the issue of Child Soldiers. This book features thirty-four prominent photographers and focuses on countries with a history of child warfare, as captured by photographers and writers from across the globe. The book explores the children’s time as combatants, as well as their demobilization and rehabilitation.
The “Child Soldiers: Forced to be Cruel” exhibit is based on the book “Child Soldiers,” by Leora Kahn. It features 40 photographs of child soldiers from around the world, who have been manipulated by war criminals and subjected to unspeakable violence. The goal was to influence international policy makers to stop the use of child soldiers around the world.

2008

•  The Darfur exhibit started traveling around the nation in 2008 and has most recently been to JFK High School in Plainview, New York. Among the places where the exhibit traveled were the Boston Public Library and The Garlen County Library in Hotsprings Arkansas. The exhibition also travels along with the Participant Film: Darfur Now.

•  PROOF sponsored by Deutsche Welle opened the first exhibition of Child Soldiers at the Bonnkunst museum in Germany in 2008.

•  PROOF approached the United Nations Children in Armed Conflict office to create a world wide traveling exhibition on child soldiers that opened at the United Nations in November 2008. The exhibit has since traveled to Vienna, Mexico, Tokyo, and Canada as well as to several universities in the United States.

•  PROOF partnered with the Child Soldiers initiative headed by General Romeo Dallaire

•  Leora Kahn spoke at the GSP-Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics 2008 colloquium “Rescuers of Genocide Victims: Research perspectives for the Future”

•  The Child Soldiers exhibit in Rome was hosted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the City of Rome, as part of the symposium, “Children and Young People Affected by War: Learn, Understand, Act,”

•  PROOF’s director Leora Kahn joined the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, Louie Morano Ocampo, in addressing 125 member states of the United Nations.

2009

•  PROOF opened their exhibition of Rwandan Rescuers,  which displayed portraits and remarkable stories of Hutus who rescued Tutsi’s during the Rwandan genocide. This exhibit has traveled to high schools throughout Rwanda.

•  Executive Director Leora Kahn spoke at Yale at the GSP-Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics 2009 symposium “Genocide, Rescue and Prevention: Understanding and Fostering Rescue Behavior in the Face of Mass Killing”

•  PROOF was involved in two conferences on rescuer behavior at Yale University in conjunction with the Genocide studies program and the interdisciplinary ethics center.

2010

•  The United States Embassy in Spain took The Rescuers exhibition around Spain to promote the idea of social justice.

2011

•  The Rescuers exhibit continues to travel and was in Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina for the Media, Arts and Social Change Conference held on July 15th and 16th presented by the Embassy of the United States to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Post-Conflict Research Center (PCRC), Center for Justice and Reconciliation and PROOF: Media for Social Justice. This two day conference involved workshops such as “Creating Dialogue Through Drama” with New York University Graduate Yosefa Forma, “Panel Discussions: Using Media for Social Change” and closing remarks from General Romeo Dallaire, former UNAMIR General who was based in Rwanda during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.

•  The Rescuers exhibit will travel to Cambodia in November of 2011 with a three week exhibition at Meta House in Phnom Penh and workshops for young adults held by Proof’s partner, local NGO, Youth for Peace.