What if ...? What if you could help India's impoverished rural youth boost their sense of self-worth and earning potential ... and make it fun at the same time?

"India Through Girls' Eyes: Empowering Village Girls with Cameras," an exhibition of photographs at the Pegge Hopper Gallery, is the outcome of such a project, created by photographer Dana Forsberg with Paula Stockman and Ramdas Lamb of the Honolulu-based Sahayog Foundation.

Using basic digital cameras, the photographs taken by 20 village girls in the state of Chhattisgarh, Central India, express their interests, talents and aspirations during a three-week project earlier this summer.

Luminous and optimistic, the girls' photographs radiate the joy of mastering a technical skill and grasping the possibilities such a skill might bring to their lives.

"Making a CD of photographs from a village wedding, for example, can bring in more than their fathers earn in three days," said photographer Forsberg. ... "And there are many, many weddings."

A chance conversation last November between Forsberg and social worker Paula Stockman turned to Stockman's visits to India. A graduate student at Hawai'i Pacific University, Stockman had visited Chhattisgarh several times as part of the Sahayog Foundation (Supporting Academic and Health Assistance for Youth Outreach & Guidance) in Central India, a charitable organization founded by Ramdas Lamb, a professor of religion at the University of Hawai'i.

"I really wanted to go to India but not as a tourist," said Forsberg, who teaches photography at 'Iolani School and at UH outreach classes. "It had to be in a helping role and I wanted to work with young people."

She began to wonder: "What if we could use photography as a means of communication, as a way for these girls to share their view of the world, build self-confidence, and move their lives forward?"

Six months of planning and fundraising followed. Friends donated laptops, photo paper and batteries. Fuji Camera offered basic point-and-shoot digital cameras at half price. At the end of the spring semester in May, Forsberg and Stockman packed their gear and set off.

The challenges were considerable, and included working digitally with 20 girls ranging in age from 13 to their early 20s who spoke no English (one girl's brother acted as a translator), and an intermittent electricity supply to the village, which meant working without laptops.

"Daily, we had a plan A with electricity, and a plan B without electricity," said Stockman. "Amazingly, everyone finished all their assignments."

The work on display in the gallery is from images the girls made from exercises such as dream sequences, portraits, self-portraits, abstract and gaada (ox-cart) assignments.

They also took field trips to local temples, the first time some of the girls had left their village, and turned in regular homework assignments.

In return, Stockman and Forsberg caught a glimpse beneath the surface of the girls' lives to their hopes and dreams for their futures.

"What impressed us most was their incredible patience," Stockman said. "Because they're at the bottom of the caste system, there is an incredible amount of prejudice against them; it's hard for them to believe they have anything to offer."

Forsberg and Stockman plan to return to Chhattisgarh in 2010, to help the girls set up a photo business to take portraits and photograph weddings. Until then regular contact is through e-mail — and photographs.

"We've left them with the cameras, laptops and photo supplies," Forsberg said. "We've set up a scholarship program, and we hope to offer them awards for their photographs."