Last weekend I had the honor of speaking and exhibiting at Silliman College at Yale University in New Haven. I photographed the story of Jean Bosco in 2008 and it still baffles me how his story affects people to give to water projects. I traveled with with Wishing Well to Murinja Village for 3 days to capture this story which has also used by charity: water for years. I still have people write me about how Jean Bosco’s story connected with them. In 2010, I traveled back to Murinja village and found Jean Bosco still walking back and forth to his well. It was quite an overwhelming reunion for me. So thankful to still be able to share his story and the incredible Wishing Well team at Silliman College who hosted this event.
Photo by me + Francisco J. Tamayo
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This is a boy that cracks me up. Personality galore. whao. read his story here Buy Bricks. Build a School
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what we do in Ethiopia when we don’t have a tow truck :-)
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An incredible group of friends came together at Sundance 2012 in Park City, Utah for this amazing event put on by Paradigm Project at the Park City High School. It is incredible when creatives meet at the same place to share their work with others. Some of the orgs present:
Africa New Life
The Paradigm Project
Krochet Kids
Discover The Journey
Miir Bottles
Invisible Children
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Paradigm Presents:
Africa New Life’s “Light The Streets“ (extended version) featured during Sundance at the Park City Highschool on Wednesday, Jan 25th, 2012 at 4pm along with several other incredible non-profit’s. It was amazing to dream up this video with Ryan Youngblood and Natalie Green and to see the impact it has had today. They are street boys no more!
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india. Jan 2012. growing.
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Matthew 25:35-40 For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’“Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you? “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’
Jesus has called us to serve the poor. Yes. That is truth. Then how do we serve them?
How do we serve them when we are traveling down a street in India and a woman who can’t feed her child comes up to you and asks you for food? What would you do?
I am one who wants to tackle issues as a whole. Whether it’s bringing clean water to the masses or building schools that educate thousands of children. But when you are stopped in your tracks by a woman begging for food, I don’t want to be seen as their savior. The rich American who you go and beg to and they give you money. Are their other ways around this?
I am traveling in India with my mother right now and she has a lot of questions for me. This is her first time to really travel in a developing country in over 30 years. She keeps looking at the mothers and the babies on the street and says “Look, Esther, they live on the street, like that?”
What’s so interesting to me is that I bring back photos from around the world to share these conditions but nothing has really hit her with this till now. Her heart is breaking for what she sees and all I want to do is fix the problem that I see. I think that’s how i’ve learned to cope with what I see all the time. So many of us. We want to fix it. So we do what we can. Use our resources, our gifts, our minds and find ways to help alleviate poverty on a grand scale by providing clean water, education, aids awareness, mosquito nets, feed programs. All amazing things that are impacting lives each day.
I still come back to the question about that one woman in that moment. What are we to do? Do we turn our backs and walk the other way? it’s true that we can’t save the whole world…but as Mother Teresa said “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one”
My response to these situations is usually to get down to their level and look them in their eyes and first ask their names. I go from each person to the next. I then use the little bit of language that I know to tell them they are beautiful. But in Ethiopia, begging becomes so overwhelming everywhere you go that you just ignore people jumping at you on all corners. In today’s situations when this woman was begging me for some bread for her children. I secretly gave my money to my Indian driver and asked him to go quietly and buy some food for them without them knowing it came from me. I don’t want them to see me as the hero. They are the hero’s for living the life of survival each and everyday.
But does it really matter? or is the important part that she is fed today. Another reason I am not one to give directly to a person begging is that I have seen a fight breakout between kids when one had something the other didn’t have.
So many thoughts turning in my head. I’m sure you have them too and that’s why I wanted to write this post. It’s something we all struggle with….what is the right way to help people.
One book that has helped me a lot is:
When Helping Hurts
I’m curious about your thoughts on this.
What are some of the ways that you’ve seen helping done right with people begging on the street?
what are ways you’ve seen it done wrong?
What would you do?
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Featuring Joshua Havens, Manny Martinez and Michael Laymon. Music written by Ryan Edgar
Director of Photography/Videographer: ME
Video Editing: Luke Asper
Keep these boys in school! Go buy a WATCH and support them. READ THEIR STORIES and find out more about them!
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