I'm so excited to let you guys know that this November, three lovely photographer friends and I are headed to Kenya! My friends Nicole, Meredith, Lindsay, and I will be working with Friends Vision, a great organization comprised of volunteers from Kenya and around the world, working to make life brighter for kids at their Children's Home.WHAT ARE WE DOING?
We'll be bringing donated digital cameras & computer equipment with us, and teaching the kids basic photography lessons, hoping to open the door for them to our passion, and give them a potentially marketable skill. I really want to see these kids energized by the beauty of photography - I remember how exciting it was (and still is!) for me to take that first good shot, and to start to see the world in a new way. Wouldn't it be awesome if some of these kids grew up to be renowned wedding photographers, or award-winning photojournalists?!?
We'll also be documenting the work that Friends Vision has been doing, through both video and stills, giving them updated images for their website and hopefully a short documentary film as well. We also hope to shoot individual portraits of the kids for use in their child sponsorship program. Obviously, we'll also be helping out however we can around the Children's Home, too.
(some of the Friends Vision kiddos)
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
We would be so encouraged by your support! Here are some of the ways you can help:
- Donate your USED (or new!) DIGITAL CAMERAS for us to take with us to give to the kids. We're looking for digital cameras in working order with all the necessary parts, if possible (batteries, chargers, cards, card readers, etc.). It doesn't matter if they're cheap point & shoots or big fancy SLRs - I'm sure the kids will love them! We're also looking for a few small printers - there are some travel-sized mini-printers that can print straight off of a camera. We'd love to be able to hand out prints as we shoot. If we can get our hands on some USED LAPTOPS IN WORKING ORDER, we'll bring those with us, too!
- Donate your FREQUENT FLYER MILES. If you have accumulated miles that you're not going to use, we'd love to have them! It may help us get over there a bit more cheaply. Sign up for an account at points.com, or contact your airline / credit card company... here's some more info about transferring your miles. If you need my frequent flyer numbers in order to transfer miles, just let me know which airline you'll be transferring from!
- Donate FINANCIALLY. You can make donations towards my trip at my YouCaring account. We're each trying to raise $2600 to cover airfare, travel costs, food, and lodging. Any money raised over our goal amounts will go straight to Friends Vision as a donation, or will be used to purchase any accessories necessary for our donated cameras to be useful to the kids.
- Plan to BUY A FRAMED OR MOUNTED PRINT from me when I get back. I'll be taking LOTS ( and lots and lots and lots) of pictures, both of the kids and of the scenery, etc, and all proceeds from any Africa print sales will go towards this trip.
- Consider SPONSORING A CHILD through Friends Vision! If we know who your sponsored child is, we can bring extra letters, etc with us, and make sure to take plenty of portraits of your sponsored child, with you in mind :)
- Join us at a FUNDRAISER EVENT. We have some fun fundraiser ideas planned ... we'll keep you updated on the details as we figure them out!
Thanks so much for your consideration - we're all so excited about this trip, and can't wait to share more details with you soon!