230

HOURS IN THE AIR

80

DAYS TRAVELLING IN
AFRICA & ASIA

1,000
Hours.

One of the best things about Taking Pictures, Changing Lives is stopping for a moment and realising the impact that all the photographs, films and stories are having. Here’s some of the ways we have had an impact in 2017:

• Helped our partner charities raise over £350,000 from an initial crowdfunding investment of £17,000
   

• Hosted a fundraising evening with the Book Bus at Chris Beetle's London gallery, featuring photographs from our Autumn trip to Malawi & Zambia
  

• Worked in Uganda and Ghana with Matt Callanan from We Make Good Happen, to produce the ‘Head Held High’ appeal content with Hope for Children, which helped raise more than 500k in the last 3 months of 2017. The photographs were also used in the initial application for match funding
  

• Created a video from this years trip to Kenya for Five Talents' Big Give Appeal. It tells the story of Esther Mwangi, a farmer in Kiambobo, Kenya. The appeal raised over £90,000 with match funding
  

• Photos from our Tanzania visit were used by Lyra in Africa in their Big Give appeal, which raised a total of £6,000
  

• Finished building a brand-new website for Salt of the Earth, filled with TPCL photographs increasing awareness and support for their work.
  

• Created a new website for the Michael Matthews Foundation, making use of the pictures from our trip to Tanzania where we were working for Lyra in Africa
  

• Started working with Child Action Lanka in Sri Lanka on their new website, which will be used as a great platform for raising awareness and telling their stories to a wider audience.
  

• 2017 marked the start of Taking Pictures, Changing Lives working with local photographers who can reach new places, visit more charities and provide invaluable cultural knowledge. Working with local photographers also puts money, training and opportunities back into the communities we are working with. Read more about our first collaboration here
  

• Created a 10 minute celebration of Rafiki Thabo's work from film footage taken in 2016 in Uganda and Kenya. It will be shown at a large fundraising event for the charity later in 2018

It is always so encouraging to hear how the charities we visit have been impacted by Taking Pictures, Changing Lives. 2017 has been another year of great working relationships, but even more it has been a year of building great friendships between the charities we get to visit and our team.

Taking Pictures, Changing Lives has had a big impact in 2017 away from the camera:

• A personal highlight has been working with Jean Bizimana, a documentary photographer focused on social issues around Africa. Jean has been taking pictures on our behalf on trips with Lemonaid & ChariTea Foundation and Theatre for a Change, both in Rwanda. The potential of working with local photographers, filmmaker and writers is amazing, and we can’t wait to work with more people as we begin to line up trips for 2018
   

• Flying Boys. On a visit to a partner in Uganda, the 2 young boys of the director were inspired to take school seriously and work hard to get good grades, simply because they saw me fly in a small plane from Kasese to Kampala. They asked their father how they could get a job that involved flying, and he told them to study hard. They are now doing really well at school, and I'm looking forward to meeting them again when we revisit this year
   

• It has been brilliant to have the opportunity to train other charity staff in how to take pictures and improve their websites. Such as time spent in Malawi with The Book Bus team practising taking effective pictures that can show off their great work
   

• Gifted two cameras to partner charities in Uganda to be used to collect case studies and increase the amount of coverage that projects get. We hope to do more of this in 2018
   

• Facilitated in the successful grant application between a charity and a major trust fund

Crowdfunding has always been essential to Taking Pictures, Changing Lives. It allows us to show potential supporters how we are helping small charities which have huge impact in deprived communities all around the world.

The risk that we won’t get the full amount we need to make our proposed trips happen is stressful. But, it’s a risk we are willing to take as we believe in the amazing encouragement and generosity of everyone who has supported us already, and in new people discovering Taking Pictures, Changing Lives and capturing our vision too.