In honor of Human Rights Day, the African American Cultural Center opened the exhibit, Children’s Visions and Voices, in the AACC art gallery Tuesday. The exhibit displays photographs by Alex Fattal and the children with whom he worked in South Africa.

According to Marcia Gumpertz, assistant vice provost for faculty and staff diversity, more than 30,000 people have seen the exhibit.

“This exhibit…is very important in discussing the issue of children’s rights in that country and making people aware of what rights children have under international law,” Gumpertz said.

Children’s Visions and Voices: Rights to Realities has traveled for two years to 11 different venues in South Africa, from Johannesburg to Kwa Zulu-Natal to the United Nations in Geneva.

In collaboration with the Children’s Rights Centre in South Africa, Fattal worked with children and communities across the country to develop the traveling exhibition.

The exhibit was designed to bring awareness to South Africans about the variety of social justice issues facing the children in their own country.

“It takes a look at South Africa 10 years after apartheid was outlawed,” Gumpertz said. “It may be surprising to people what conditions are like in parts of South Africa, so it’s good to learn what those conditions are like.”

Drew Royal, a freshman in textile engineering, thinks the exhibit is a great way to provide awareness of children’s needs to society.

“It gets their [issues] out to society,” he said.

The exhibit in the art gallery features about 25 panels of Fattal’s work. Each panel displayed concerns for a different right for children, such as “My Rights as a Refugee,” “My Right to Protect My Baby From HIV/AIDS,” “My Rights as a Child in Prison” and “My Right to Religion.”

“It is really a great way to express the needs of children because you can see them through the photographs,” Reed Goodwin-Johansson, a freshman in aerospace engineering, said. “It gets the same idea portrayed to all people who can make that difference in [the childrens’] lives.”

Fattal traveled through South Africa from February 2003 to August 2004 as a Lewis Hine Documentary Fellow. This fellowship is through the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

Each year, Lewis Hine Fellows are sent abroad to work with local organizations to document social justice issues.

The Duke Center for Documentary Studies had the exhibit when the University AACC contacted them.

“They had this exhibit that seemed very appropriate for Human Rights Day, so it’s here specifically for Human Rights Day,” Gumpertz said.

Human Rights Day commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations on December 10, 1948.

Chancellor James Oblinger proclaimed Dec. 10, 2006 as Human Rights Day at N.C. State.

“A lot of city and state governments, as well as universities, also declare that day to be Human Rights Day in their community,” Gumpertz said.

The AACC will display the exhibit in the art gallery on the second floor of Witherspoon through Jan. 18.