HEARD and Refugee Social Services are the South African partners on a multi-country project called Growing Up Across Borders (GRABS): Experience of Young People in Forced Migration, led by the University of Paris 8. The project aims to develop innovative participatory methodologies to better understand the experience of young people (15-24 years) growing up in a situation of forced migration and to explore how these young people’s strategies for resilience can be strengthened. 

 

In 2025, the research team engaged in photovoice and podcasting activities with young refugees living in eThekwini. And at the beginning of 2026, the GRABS project held a very successful photo exhibition of the young people’s work at the KZNSA Gallery which ran from 31st January to 7th February 2026.

 

The exhibition launch was attended by the young photographers and their families, project partners and members of the public. The event was opened by Azola Krweqe, the gallery administrator, Professor Jane Freedman, the project PI, and Professor Laurent Vidal, Director of the IRD-CNRS-CIRAD office in South Africa. One of the young participants in the project, Gladys Irakoze, spoke about what being part of the GRABS project had meant to her, and how she felt to see her own photos exhibited in a professional art gallery.

 

The exhibition also featured a sound track of the podcasts made by project participants which brought to light some of the pressing issues faced by young refugees, issues which were also illustrated in the photographs.

 

Photographs by Niamh Ashling