If I had to nominate my biggest passions, photography and blogging would be right up there in the top few. I’ve been doing both for years, and have benefited a great deal from doing so—on many levels.
But I’ve always wondered how I cold use these passions to make the world a better place.
I know they do now, on some levels—every day, dPS helps photographers to become better at what they do—but as dPS has grown to reach over 3 million people a month, I’ve wondered if perhaps we could do something more with the site to help those in need in a bigger way?
So late last year I decided to give it a go, and see what can be achieved.
The Tanzanian Experiment
Next Friday I’m going to experiment with doing just that—and I’d love you to join me.
On 25 February, I’m jumping on a plane (well, a series of them) for Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, East Africa.
I’ll be in the country for one week, to spend time observing—and reporting back to readers and to my social networks on—an amazing project called Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania (CCBRT), a project of CBM, an international disability and development organization.
The trip is being organized by CBM Australia (you can read more about it here) with the goal of raising awareness of the issues that are faced every day by people with disabilities in developing countries.
The work they do is amazing.
Last year alone, they performed over 10,530 surgeries and helped improve the lives of around 120,000 people with disabilities and their carers.
Their work focuses upon many areas including working with sight-related disabilities, club foot, cleft lip/palate, and maternal health (among others).
Having spent time visiting a number of other projects in developing countries over the years, I know that this trip will be confronting, but I’m excited by the opportunity to both be personally impacted by what I see and to share the journey with you.
Throughout the week in Tanzania, I’ll be sharing what I see via blog posts, images, videos, and tweets. We’ll be focusing mainly upon some of the work with maternal health issues (mainly Fistula), and tracking some of the stories of the people that we meet.
This trip is not a money grab. The intent isn’t to be creating daily calls for you to donate. I’m sure CBM wouldn’t say no to donations (in fact, they’d go a long way to change lives), but my intent with this trip is to share stories, highlight needs, and show what an amazing organization and its people are doing to meet the needs around them.
My hope is that we’ll all come away from the experience with a better awareness of the issues, and the motivation to do something to make the world a better place (whether that be by supporting the work of CBM, or supporting another need you know of).
I also hope that it’s a great trip for my photography. I’ll be taking my Canon EOS 5D Mk II and a couple of lenses, and I look forward to the challenge of photographing the people I meet while on the ground in Tanzania.
How Can You Join this Trip?
The bulk of the blogging that I’ll be doing while I’m away will be on CBM’s blog (there isn’t much there yet, but we’ll be adding to it and redoing to the template significantly in the coming week). I’ll be adding posts, videos, and images during the week that I’m on the ground, and in the weeks that follow.
I’ll probably do an update or two here on dPS next week, but I’m aware that this blog is about photography and not Tanzania or the issues facing developing countries, so we’ll keep it largely on CBM’s site.
If you’d like to get those updates, please subscribe to their blog here.
You can also follow the journey on Twitter by following CBM’s Twitter account. I’ll be making updates there, and also from time to time on the @ProBlogger and @DigitalPS Twitter accounts.
Lastly – you can support this project by sharing news of it and the content we produce while in Tanzania. Please consider passing on the links to stories we share and helping word spread further about what we’re up to. Thanks!
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