TGL Nicaraga 2013: From the Road, #2

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TGL Nicaraga 2013: From the Road, #2

Posted by: Kate | Posted on: February 5th, 2013 | 2 Comments

While The Giving Lens workshops are filled with adventure, beautiful photography, award winning instructors, and unique opportunities that you would not normally experience as a tourist, it also has helping aspect, as we always work with a non profit in the countries we visit.

TGL Nicaragua is the first of our return workshops, where we continue to teach the photography club of Empowerment International skills that will not only apply to their photography, but also, help them become successful adults. During our first workshop in July 2012, the teams came home with hundreds of photos of the students and and their families. We promised the kids and their families that the next time we came to see them, we would bring them prints to always have and cherish.

This morning, we began to fulfill our promise with the help of our 2013 team. At 6am, we found ourselves in the barrio at the students’ homes, getting a taste of the daily lives of their families. With the loud call of the roosters and the smell breakfast being cooked, while the children awoke and started their days. As we went home to home, we helped hand out the prints that were generously donated by our sponsor, SmugMug. You can read more about Smugmug’s providing high quality prints to hang in the EI Gallery in a guest blog post by on Smugmug’s Blog.

The children’s faces lit up as they saw themselves with their parents and siblings in beautiful 4×6 prints. Most of these families don’t have many, if any, photos of themselves, let alone family portraits taken by some amazing photographers. It goes to show just how meaningful photography can be.

Here, Empowerment International student Juanita proudly displays a photo of her washing her sister’s hair, taken by trip leader Varina Patel.You can read Varina’s experience on the last trip, and the story behind this photo, on her amazing blog.