Our expedition is to fulfil the dream of a photojournalist who started telling the story of women, children, people with disabilities and other vulnerable in Liberia a decade ago. The dream created a column in the New Democrat Newspaper styled, “Eye for the News”. The column however was later transformed into a nonprofit with the goal of a broader Human Rights work.
Our expedition realizes a new digital age; an age that envisions a generational change and the empowerment of people to help themselves. Our desire is to empower the groups with photography skills, believing that effective advocacy enables nonprofit organizations to shape public debate on important social issues, ensuring that underserved communities have a voice in the policies that impact their daily lives.
Our expedition in Liberia is to create a stronger advocacy for mentorship and a generational change. Thus we have developed a project for children and women empowerment, training them in photography, and writing skills for public engagement to provoke Policy Change and at the same time, tell their own stories and the communities they represent.
Our expedition observed that photography remains unreasonably male-dominated in some parts of the World. Liberia, a country in West Africa that elected the first female President in Africa almost fifteen years ago, also accounts for women underrepresentation in all Liberia’s leading newspapers as newsroom photographers or photojournalists.
Our expedition concerns are not just about making sure women have access to more opportunities within the industry, however, we believed men and women experience life differently and have different perspectives to offer. Yet the view of what constitutes ‘good photography’ has largely been defined by the work of men in Liberia.
Looking deeper into the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) Journalists membership, we see the photography sector is characterized with inequality. We believe that to remain relevant and authentic; the Liberia’s Media must be more diverse to fairly reflect the society–our expedition is aimed to bridge that gap.
Our expedition have seen both weaker and strong advocacy in Liberia that includes systems advocacy, an advocacy that focuses on changing policies, laws or rules that impact how people live.
Our expedition wishes to train women and children in photography given that photographs are powerful tools that can create awareness and effect an everlasting change in a society. No doubt, the visual narrative that is often created through photographs can move individuals to take action.
Our expedition is goal to train a group of women and children that will lead a fearless advocacy, a group that will not be intimidated, but respect individual newsmakers, government officials using Photographs as a tool to document, educate, move people, and inform.
Photographs have the ability to be a powerful resource in the efforts of human rights advocates when used effectively and ethically, our expedition will therefore train for the ethical us of photography.
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