Myrna Balk
Myrna Balk is social worker and an artist who spent several seasons in Nepal consulting with NGO’s about rehabilitation programs for survivors of sex trafficking and domestic abuse and taught at St. Xavior’s College School of Social Work in Kathmandu.
Her artistic works on paper and in wood, have been shown in Boston, New York, Cleveland, Kathmandu, Beijing, India, Hungary, and at the United Nations in New York.
Bring her artistic experience to groups of girls in Nepal, Myrna led drawing sessions which resulted in the collection of drawings seen on the web site. Texts of the girl’s thoughts and experiences accompany their drawings. The work about trafficking has been seen in the Boston area and Cleveland, Ohio.
A 2004 collaboration with playwright Deborah Lake Fortson is a play called BOdY& SOLD, which tells the story of an Indian and a Nepali girl trafficked to India. The second act focuses on the abuse and trafficking of American youth, 4 girls and 2 boys. We have shown the play to several colleges in Boston and hope to continue to show the work.
A January 2005 exhibit of wood cuts, etchings and mixed media focuses on “forgotten children” and looks at abuse and trafficking, and mail order brides.