by Arena Phaphilom

Does learning about photography make your life better? If you’re 18, and have already been homeless, and in foster care, and been through major family disintegration—does using a camera or participating in a photography program make some kind of tangible difference for you?

That’s the central question for a community based photographer, and the organization that works with him or her. And it’s a hard one to answer.

I wanted to know how programs that work toward such intangible goals as inspiration, engagement, and increased self-worth measure their success. Since I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Joseph Smooke and his community based photography program with Fresno’s “The kNOw,” I asked him about how he and his collaborator Mai Der Vang have handled evaluating their work.

This term, they tried a new system. They put together a list of questions that they asked in the middle of the program, and then asked very similar questions again at the end. They asked the questions both on paper and in a discussion. It turned out that asking the questions halfway through really contributed to the program in a way they hadn’t anticipated. The evaluation itself prompted the students to think a little more deeply about what they were doing, and why. For Joseph seeing that increased self awareness, even in the students who hadn’t engaged very much, was meaningful.

He told me, “In the final session that I did last week, I went around and I asked some of the evaluation questions. And some of the kids said, ‘You know what? I was just plain lazy, and I just didn’t do it.’ And they wouldn’t have said that a few months ago, and that was really cool.”

Of course, there were students who said the opposite as well. “Others talked about how inspiring the class was for them,” said Joseph, “and how in each session they got more energized and inspired by it. And you could see that in the work too.”

“We start each session by getting together in a room and going through all the photos. And that last session, the first couple I looked at, I was so disappointed. I almost told Mai Der, I’m just going to go back to San Francisco, because this [whole program] just didn’t do anything. But I kept looking at them, and then I saw the pictures from the kids who really did put in the time…Oh my God, it was so extraordinary! They really pushed, and they did amazing work. Just amazing work.”

The evaluations are also a chance to learn about the kids—how they are doing, what their lives are like. In this particular evaluation, one of the questions asked how kids’ families reacted to them taking pictures. Many of the students responded by saying that their families didn’t know they took pictures or were not interested in their images. On the one hand, at that age my parents didn’t know everything about me either. But on the other hand, whenever I had something tangible to show them, like a photograph I had made, I was eager to, and they always seemed interested. So if I were facilitating this workshop, that small bit of information would become a point of reference for me, a moment where I could understand a tiny bit more about how my students’ experiences differ from my own.

In the end, you can’t really know if this learning experience is the one that helps a student tip the scale toward happiness or success. But I think both community building and education are just a series of many modest revelations and connections. It seems to me that a good evaluation helps to demonstrate that these moments took place, and meant something to the people who experienced them.

Have you had experiences evaluating intangibles like this? I’d love to hear your perspective. Email me at eliza@photophilanthropy.org

Established in 2008, the Freedom to Create Prize is a celebration of the courage and creativity of artists around the world who use their talents to promote social justice, build the foundations for open societies and inspire the human spirit. It is open to artists in all creative fields. Each year, US$125,000 in prize money is awarded across three categories: Main, Youth and Imprisoned Artist.

Freedom to Create (www.freedomtocreate.com) is a global movement of creative people who are changing the world.

To apply for the prize, click here, or visit the Freedom to Create website for more information. The application process is open until August 15, 2010.

As always the kid at PIO school are happy to see visitors, especially visitors than offer them help and friendship.

The day was very hot and the visitors were obviously not used to this intense heat, as their accompanying teacher told me, ” they are used to learning in controlled air-conditioned classrooms, this will certainly be a good learning experience for them and open their eyes to how difficult it can be for some people to get an education”. After a tour the school and its facilities the kids started to play games, a favourit pastime for all kids and one that seems to overcome boundaries of language and race. One of the Young people took up the task of organizing games and what a great job she did and great time was had by all.

The Afternoon ended with the children from PIO giving a display of Apsara dancing for the visitors. The children at PIO always look forward to receiving visitors to their school and the experience always seems to be positive for both visitors and the children of PIO School.

I have learned more about my country, and the major social issues people are facing in it, from a “fictional” television show than I have from mainstream news media in the last couple of years. And that’s because I watched the Wire.

I am a proselytizer for the Wire. And I think that’s because I appreciate the fact that it taught me so much. It was also deeply moving.

The Wire manages to talk about contemporary social issues without being racist. The Wire takes risks, it is courageous, it is honest, and it never demeans its characters. To date, I have not seen that many photographs, or shows, or movies marketed to a majority-white audience that give their black and white characters equal complexity, equal agency, equal weight. For example, the Blind Side? Horrifying.

But I wonder, why is it that a fictional tv series is doing a better job than a lot of major media outlets at educating me about the social problems in and institutions of my country?

Is that predictable, because the symmetry of fiction fundamentally pleases the human brain?

Or is it astounding because it means that so much journalism that I come into contact with on a regular basis is superficial, cliché, and uninformative?

This weekend, in the New York Times Magazine, Wyatt Mason wrote the cover story about David Simon, the Wire, and Simon’s new series, Treme, premiering on HBO on April 11^th. One line from that article particularly struck me. Mason describes a group of the writers and producers sitting around together, working on one of the scripts. He writes about the conversation “touching on the curious psychology of writers, the nature of moral and dramatic character, the matter of manhood and marriage, of what it means to try to make art and what it means to encounter disaster and the chance to survive it and what such a survival might cost.”

That line articulates what I am not getting out of some mainstream media articles about disasters—I get the disaster, I get the survival, maybe I get a story about the cost, much later…but rarely will I find an article or a photo essay that deals with all three of those things: the disaster and the chance to survive it and what such a survival might cost.

In a recent New Yorker article called NonStop News, Ken Auletta observes that journalism “is more superficial than it once was. It has lost the power to arbitrate what matters, as the speed of gathering news shapes its content.” (p. 43)

It makes sense. If the medium is the message, when the media change, the messages they are capable of conveying change. Now that news has to be instantly available, and instantly absorbable, and spread out over many different media, it can be hard to build longer, more nuanced stories.

In his final paragraph, Auletta quotes Peter Baker, a Times reporter: “‘We are, collectively, much like eight-year-olds chasing a soccer ball,’ he says. ‘Instead of finding ways of creating fresh, original, high-impact journalism, we’re way too eager to chase the same story everyone else is chasing, which is too often the easy story and too often the simplistic story—and too often the story that misses what’s going on.’” (p. 47)

Photographs are playing a huge role in all of this. A photograph travels at the speed of light. There is no medium faster, or more immediate. Photographs meet the needs of new media, so we are seeing more and more of them. And in an environment built around speed, a simplistic photograph gains more traction than a complicated one.

And what happens when photographs are overly simplistic? They use references and clichés to communicate. They portray stereotypes. They get racist!  And classist. And imperialist. They reinforce what people already think and feel, rather than helping people question themselves. And that isn’t news. That’s the same old story.

I think back to some of the comments on my post two weeks ago, where a few writers decried Fazal Sheikh’s pictures as boring and obtuse. I disagree. I think Sheikh’s pictures are terrifyingly beautiful, and extremely complex. I think the longer you look at them, the more they offer you. They take time to make, and time to absorb. And the context he provides for them is rich and varied—it takes even more time to read the stories he has collected, and the stories he tells of his own experience. And each moment you spend reading and looking rewards you, both emotionally and factually, just like time spent watching the Wire.

You don’t see too many photographs like Sheikh’s in the news media. Why? Perhaps because editors are trying too hard to meet consumer expectations from within a dying business model? Sometimes it seems to me as though many mainstream outlets have lost the ability to take risks; to ask difficult questions. Difficult questions have long, ambiguous answers. And they don’t seem to have time for that.

Asim Rafiqui is a photojournalist who writes an extremely insightful blog, where he made this statement back in May: “Editors (and not just photo editors, but the main editors) have significant influence in determining what kinds of pictures are made because they have a significant influence on what kinds of pictures are published. And the dirty little secret of photojournalism is that all photographers, particularly young and ambitious ones, learn quickly what editors want.”

When it comes down to it, human beings communicate through stories. Memorizing facts? Hard and boring. Memorizing a story? Easy and fun. It just happens, and you don’t even think about it.

That’s actually what the Chronicle’s photo editor, Kathleen Hennessy, was talking about in our interview, when she stressed focusing on one individual in order to describe a larger issue. Human beings tune in when they know there’s a story. It seems to be how we are wired.

Can’t wait to see Treme, David Simon. You rock.

Eliza Gregory writes a weekly blog for PhotoPhilanthropy.org

Phymean hands out the eggs

In the UK there’s an old saying,”an Apple a day keeps the Doctor away”, this has been adopted here in Cambodia for the children of the PIO school, but using eggs and a daily multivitamin suppliment tablet.

Vitamin Content of Eggs: Eggs are rich in vitamin B, especially vitamin b12, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E and vitamin K. It should be noted that very few food items that contain vitamin D, egg being one of them.

Health Benefits of Eggs: The nutritional value of eggs makes it good for immunity, strong vision, treatment of macular degeneration, cataract treatment, skin care, nervous system, strong bones, and blood formation. Recent research has also shown that consuming eggs does not lead to increase in serum cholesterol levels.

The Kids Love Them

Before the earthquake, knowing that Haiti had a number of about 380 000 orphans, Orphfund was in contact with two communities and was planning a project for 2010 to help vulnerable children. Now, children in the “hatless country”, as Haiti-born author Dany Laferrière calls it, are in much greater need for assistance than ever before. According to the United Nations’ Children Fund, an estimated 1.26 million children – approximately 700,000 of them school-aged – have been directly affected by the earthquake in Haiti. This is a frightening number and it is difficult to estimate how long it will take before this age group recovers from this personal and national trauma caused by the earthquake.

At the moment, world organizations are working towards reuniting families that were displaced or separated during the earthquake. This colossal task is crucial within the chaos and aid needed. This is especially important for young children who are left alone, without knowing their address or their relatives, thus becoming at high risk of trafficking. Let me emphasize that Orphfund does not specialise in emergency or immediate aid. We rather bring help children by building and rebuilding of communities following horrific events or crisis, such as this one. We have projects in Cambodia, Tibet, Sierra Leone and Kenya, and our next projects will take place in Uganda and Haiti.

We are planning on going to the Leogane area in about one year from now, with a team of volunteers. In addition to the building of schools and orphanages, many ideas are in the talks, such as farming and tree nursery projects. However, at the moment, the situation on the ground is far too chaotic to have a detailed idea of what our project will consist of. We will know more details as time unfolds within the next months.

In the mean time, we are raising as many funds as possible among people and hold fundraising events in different parts of the world, so that we will be able to help as much as possible when the time comes. ALL funds received are going to be 100% used for the rebuilding project.

I am sure that some of you readers have already generously donated to charities providing aid and relief for immediate needs. Good job!
-If you did NOT donate for Haiti yet, I strongly encourage you to do, and by helping our initiative.
-If you did already donate for Haiti, I still encourage you to squeeze in a few more dollars from your pocket, to help this rebuilding project, because MANY funds will be needed to truly help this contry.

For donations (there is NO minimum amount, any amount will be greatly appreciated!), please write anneso.orphfund@gmail.com and I will explain to you how to donate, according to your country.
Also, if you are interested in helping or if you want to know more about our projects or about us, send me a message to the above email.

Thank You!
Anne-Sophie Cardinal, co-Director of Orphfund Israel, who is watching this world right now and thinking that Haiti will need help beyond words, to get back on track… (but with your help, we can do it!)

Street children in Delhi

The idea of Stella*Finance is rather simple: to provide a direct link between supporters and institutions offering basic education for those in need. As a registered charity, it raises money at various fundraising events, such as charity auctions and concerts, as well as by collecting in-kind and financial contributions and promoting and administering an individual child sponsorship scheme.

Due to the close personal relationship between its individual members and staff of the supported institutions – which Stella*Finance considers essential for securing the proper administration of funds provided –, there is also the possibility for volunteers to work on-site. In all its activities, Stella*Finance takes care to ensure the sustainability of the projects it supports; it restricts its activities to help to people to help themselves: Only locally run projects are supported.

The first project supported by Stella was the Delhi “Udayan Care” education centre for street children – orphans, kids that have been abused, abandoned. The centre does not only provide them with primary education, it also wants to enable them to live in a family-like environment by drawing on volunteer mentor parents. Its long-term objective is to reintegrate those kids into society. Udayan Care is currently taking care of more than 130 children, most of them girls, in nine different places.

Jamyang boarding school

Stella also supports the Jamyang boarding school in Leh, Kashmir (India), which is located in the Himalaya´s Ladakh region. The teaching staff comprises four teachers, two supervisors and one monk. In 2008, schooling started with 54 kids from most remote areas of the mountains; a new class of similar size has started in 2009.

The children have been selected in view of their needs: from the poorest families, often with parents not capable of raising their children properly, and not having any other chances to get primary education. The school supports in particular girls which are at risk of not being supported by their families at all.

Addis Ababa

Most recently Stella*Finance accepted to support a project in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: a vocational training school providing professional education to young girls coming from local orphanages. The project, initiated by the local NGO “New Life Community” and supported by other international partners, offers a three-years course for future administrative assistants, thereby giving the orphan girls a much better chance on the job market.

There are more projects currently under evaluation in accordance with Stella’s fundamental principles and its Code of Ethics, notably an educational programme for refugee kids in Munich, Germany, and an orphanage in Hanoi, Vietnam. And the team of Stella*Finance is eager to expand its help even more in providing education to children in need. Because, as the saying goes: “If you educate a child, you will educate an entire village.”

For updates see www.stella-finance.org

In 2009 we will travel through Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, meeting with local people and small organizations along the way. Our goals will be to show how people in other parts of the world live and how you can make a difference that can better someone’s life. No matter where you live, there are many stereotypes and assumptions about other cultures that often limit your ability to make a personal connection. By showing the differences and similarities between cultures, we believe that more people will be encouraged to reach out to their neighbors across the globe. We also want to showcase the important work of small organizations that are truly making a difference. Instead of blind charitable handouts to people in need, many organizations are relying on education and sustainability to allow recipients to help themselves perpetually. These charities deserve more attention not just for their innovative work, but also because we can all learn from their experiences. Our hope is to inspire more people to reach out and make a difference to someone who lives a life different from their own.

Our year long trip will begin on January 20th in Morocco. Over the next several months we will weave our way through West Africa passing through some of the world’s poorest, yet most amazing countries. Then we will head to the Middle East, a region where many people maintain a relatively high standard of living, but find their lives often interrupted by religious and racially driven conflict. Next we will head to East Africa before venturing on to India. We won’t be able to visit every country in each of these regions, but hopefully our trip will provide us with a solid cross-section of the cultures and beliefs in each place. While a major motivation for our trip is to raise awareness through Collective Lens, our adventure is self funded and some of it will be for personal enjoyment. We plan to see some amazing cultures, make some wonderful friends, and learn about the world from a variety of perspectives.

If you know of any organizations, charities, or NGO’s in the regions that we will be visiting, please let us know about them. We are currently in the process of seeking out organizations to visit, and we’d love to hear from our readers. You can post in the comments or send us an email to info [at] collectivelens.com.

Naturally, you can expect blog posts about our travels here on the Collective Lens blog, but this blog will contain much more than that. We’ve gained a few writers lately. Russ will usually be writing about humanitarian issues, Chanelle will be writing about nonprofit strategies, and Heidi and Brynn will be writing about various issues in third world countries. (If you’re interested in writing for Collective Lens, read this.)

Thanks for your support everyone, we’re looking forward to a great year.

-Bryan and Laurie, founders of Collective Lens

Are you a teacher hoping to get your students excited about photography and involved in a good cause? Collective Lens is reaching out to classrooms in an effort to get youth excited about photojournalism and social change.

We’ve put together an informational page to help teachers plan lessons around bringing awareness to good causes through photography. If you know of any school photography programs, please pass it along. We’ll feature the great work of students here on our blog, so send in your classroom projects!

It doesn’t matter where in the world your classroom is located, because there are global and local issues all around us that can be documented. A student project that highlights a local organization can help the students learn not just about photography, but about the world around them.

Check out our In the Classroom page for more information, and email us at info [at] collectivelens.com for questions or suggestions.

What can you tell us about Partners with GLOW?
In Mushota, Zambia, the organization is comprised solely of AIDS orphaned girls. Partners with GLOW seeks to help these girls raise the funds needed to finish their education through High School. Unlike in the United States, the Zambian government does not sponsor education through grade 12. Schools begin charging tuition after the seventh grade. Frequently the children most at risk in already impoverished areas are orphans, and worst among them are the girls. Partners with GLOW’s primary goal is to help the GLOW club of Mushota, Zambia develop a number of useful life-skills, including income generation, responsibility, and goals as well as good social skills of community support. In Zambia, possessing a twelfth grade education puts one at a great advantage.

GLOW Club girls making jewelry

Prostitution and its effects are also a main cause of the HIV virus spreading throughout sub-Saharan Africa – among other issues within sanitary and health care practices. By providing the GLOW Club of Mushota the support they need in order to achieve a good level of education, it’s the hope of Partners with GLOW that these girls will never be pulled into prostitution.

How do you help the girls?
Partners with GLOW is testing different income generation projects that the girls can sell to caring, aware US citizens. Since they are just young girls, there is no pressure from Partners with GLOW or “output expectations.” Right now the girls are having a great time making beaded jewelry, expressing and exploring their creative sides. In the past, the Mushota GLOW club has also made place mats from the brightly patterned local material “Chitenge,” producing some beautiful place settings.

How can someone get involved?
In addition to accepting donations, Partners with GLOW sells the jewelry that the Mushota girls make. This is an opportunity to illustrate that industrious, entrepreneurial activity does make a difference. It’s our goal that the girls will learn more than just a mentality of “work for money.” We also hope the GLOW Club will learn fiscal responsibility and basic money management. Since we only manage the funds in the US – then transfer them directly to their group bank account, the girls are responsible for making sure they budget correctly for their education. We have an adult mentor, Ba Chomba, who currently works closely with us. She is receiving the training she will need in order to make sure the girls and the club as a whole are ready for the challenges ahead.

Ba Chomba, the GLOW Club mentor

How is the program affecting the lives of the girls?
The girls are making great progress towards their education. For example, Christabel is 14 years old and is currently in 9th grade at Mushota Basic School. Her favorite activities are playing netball and dancing. She lost her parents when she was 5, and moved in with her aunt’s family in Mushota 3 years ago. Christabel explains that living with her relatives in Mushota is very difficult for her, “I am given a lot of hard work while my cousins just work a little bit. It does not make me feel good when I’m treated this way, it makes me think about my parents. I start to really miss them.”
In school, Christabel enjoys learning English, Mathematics and Science, “When I’m taught these subjects, I find that I’m able to understand them well. I especially enjoyed learning about electricity and geometry. My goal is to finish school and become an accountant so that I can earn money to support other orphans like myself.”

Christabel, 14

“I love the GLOW Club because I’ve learned many things. I’ve learned how to make placemats, which are my favorite things to make. I’ve learned how to keep myself at school, not to get married early, and how to choose good friends that help me to change my life. I also earn money that helps me to stay in school because I’m able to buy the school uniform, books, and pay my school fees.”

For Term 2, May through July, 2008, Christabel bought a backpack, a school uniform, a sweater and notebooks with the money she earned.

Rosemary is 15 years old, and is currently working on grade 8. Rosemary loves reading books and playing hide and seek. Rosemary was born in the capitol, Lusaka, where she stayed with her parents until they passed away 8 years ago. She had no other relatives in Lusaka, so she had no choice but to move to the distant village of Mushota where her grandmother farms. Life changed drastically for Rosemary when her parents passed away, “My mom was able to afford most things for us, but since my grandmother is old, when I need something she often says, ‘I don’t have this, I don’t have that’.”

Rosemary has found guidance and support from the GLOW Club, “I like GLOW because I have learned how to look after myself, to avoid early marriage and pregnancy so I can complete my education. GLOW is helping me to continue my education because I am now able to buy what I need for school, which solves the problem that was hindering me.”

Rosemary is a strong, confident young woman with goals and direction. She feels that if she becomes educated, she will have a chance at a brighter future: “I like going to school because I want to be educated so I can live a happy life. I am happy to be learning English because when I start working I’ll be able to speak English with my boss and co-workers…My goal for now is to qualify for grade 10. I want to be a nurse because I don’t want so many people to be dying.

“The most important thing about GLOW is that making these crafts and selling them is helping me to become educated. I want these things to continue so I can even go to college.”
For term 2, May-July, Rosemary purchased a uniform and a sweater with the money she earned.

Glow Club girls making jewelry