Amazon Rainforest Exhibition Opens in Edinburgh

                                                                                                                            Wednesday April 11 2018

PHOTOGRAPHS taken by a retired Borders shepherdess on a trip to the Amazon rainforest with Christian Aid feature in a new photography exhibition that opens in Edinburgh today (Wednesday).

The exhibition, ‘Inherit the Earth’ by award winning photographer Elaine Duigenan, shares stories and images of the charity’s work with indigenous communities on projects such as solar ovens, water pumps and community vegetable gardens designed to improve food security and takes place at St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh from today until April 26.

Trish Gentry (70) from Yetholm, whose photographs feature in the exhibition said: “Visiting the Bolivian Amazon was an experience I’ll never forget and such a contrast to my life in the Borders working with sheep. What struck me was seeing how something as simple as a solar oven for example could have such a positive impact on people lives and this is one of the reasons why I have chosen to leave a legacy in my will to Christian Aid so that similar projects in Bolivia and around the world can continue to receive my support.

“One of the women I met, Esther explained how since getting a solar oven she’d been spared spending hours trying to collect dry firewood in such wet conditions and cooking constantly over an open fire, breathing in harmful smoke”.

Christian Aid has also been working with the Church of Scotland Guild which has raised nearly £90,000 for the solar ovens project over the past three years after adopting the initiative as one of its three year partner projects. Trish is a member of the Church of Scotland Guild.

Church of Scotland Guild Secretary, Iain Whyte, said of the Guild’s fundraising: “Through being involved with this project, we have learnt a lot about communities in the Amazon and how these solar ovens work to transform people’s lives and enable them to become more resilient in the face of climate change”.

Minister at St Giles’, the Rev Calum Macleod said the Church was ‘delighted to be hosting this colourful exhibition’.

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