Giving: Helping others. Ourselves changed. Capturing it all with photos.

Our family would travel internationally to witness firsthand needs being met, meet the people, experience the culture, allow ourselves to be changed...and capture it all with photos. Many, many photos.

My husband grew up on a dairy farm and often reminisces about the work ethic fostered there. Though we do not live on a farm, my husband and I desired a similar opportunity for our children. Selling chicken eggs has been one avenue in developing these essential skills. Our feathered friends are dependent upon our whole family’s diligence and consistency. Every day we feed and water the hens, and pick and wash the eggs. The children eagerly watch as each week the few dollars from egg sales accumulate. Slow, steady work. Day in, day out. A little here, a little there.

The money is saved in a pottery jar, collected to give.

We sit around our table at Christmastime looking at needs for which we can contribute, careful to scrutinize the potential organization’s ethics, vision and integrity. Pennies accumulate. Children dash to piggy banks to add a bit more.

“Should we buy a sheep for a family in Romania?”

“I’d like to buy a donkey for a family in Afghanistan. Then they can haul water back to their house.”

“What about giving toward a boat for some fisherman in Myanmar who had his ruined in a hurricane?” I suggest.

“Look at this! We can put money toward starting a sawmill business in the Ukraine. That would help many families at once,” Daddy explains.

“How about contributing to drilling a well in Kenya where they have no safe drinking water?”

My son chimes in, “I want to buy some chickens for a family, so they can have eggs like us.”

So many needs. Our family, for one, has no idea what it’s like. Years ago, I briefly witnessed the poverty level of the majority of people living on this suspended ball. My husband and children have had no such experience.

We wake up and have clean water to drink and bathe in, a wide variety of food to eat, shelter from the elements and more clothes than we need. How do we help our children understand what it is like to not always have those things, and yet realize that many times those that are poor monetarily are often rich in character, putting us to shame? And, though we may be from different cultures, we are all deeply human and worthy of respect and love?

It is from this longing that my dream photo shoot emerged. We would coordinate with our charity of choice, donating some of the winnings for large items of need. It may be a set of water buffalo, allowing a rice farmer in Myanmar to again support his family after Cyclone Nargis. We could provide funds to build a large greenhouse in the Ukraine to employ and support many needy families. It could be financing a water well in Kenya to reduce sickness and disease where they often use a waterhole alongside cattle.

Then our family would travel to these areas to see these needs being met, meet the people, experience the culture, allow ourselves to be changed…and capture it all with photos.

Many, many photos.

Because I love to take pictures. Just ask my family.

Logistically, I have contacted the organization that provides for such needs and they have agreed to help with contacts in these areas to make this dream possible.

As we give to affect change in lives on the other side of the globe, there would be no less of a change within us. Forever changed. A wider perspective. An appreciation for others. A stronger desire to give.

There are stories to tell and memories to keep through such a trip. Not only for our family, but also in the lives of those with whom we share our experience for years to come.

The world holds much more than the sheltered 30 mile radius from which we spend 95% of our time. What better way to expand our vision then to go. What better way to preserve our experiences than through the shutter of the camera.

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