One of my most exciting collaborations of last year was photo and video work with the Hovde Foundation. I first met their Executive Director, Jeffrey Boyd, through One Home Many Hopes where he saw the video work I’d done for them and thought my style would be a good fit for Hovde’s efforts as well.

Those efforts? The building of homes for orphaned, abused, and/or abandoned street children in Latin America and Africa. They’ve built five so far, partnering each time with incredibly inspirational people and organizations on the ground. I’ve had the pleasure of visiting and shooting four of their homes (Kenya and Rwanda in 2010 and Ghana and Mexico in 2011). In fact that one blog I’ve done since April was about the trip to Ghana. A video for Sunwest Bank, showcasing the employees that helped with the construction of the home there, also materialized not long after. (read more…)

Ghanian Fishing Boat

A couple weeks back, as I was literally in the middle of a morning of cleaning up debris leftover from a tree that fell on the studio during Hurricane Irene, I received a pretty wild email from Jeff Boyd at the Hovde Foundation. He was in Ghana and had a number of volunteers from Sunwest Bank flying in to help build a home for children there. Having enjoyed the work I did on a quick video showcasing the house the Foundation helped build in Kenya, Jeff asked if I was available for a week photos and video production work in Ghana starting that Friday. Pretty last second stuff, eh? Well, after checking my schedule, apologizing the clients who’s work I’d have to delay a bit, and lucking out when it came to getting a Ghanian visa in time, I was on my way.

Once on the ground, not only did I have the privilege of getting to know an entirely new country on the western side of Africa, and making a number of new friends in the amazing team from Sunwest, but I was also able to get to know more about the amazing work James Kofi Annan and his organization, Challenging Heights, was doing to end child-slavery in the country.

You see, in Ghana, despite its illegality, the impoverished conditions so many live in lead to parents selling their own children to fishermen for around $40. For the most part, parents do this with the fisherman promising to teach the child a trade and suggesting a better life and future for the child, so in addition to the financial benefit, many parents believe they’re doing what’s in their child’s best interest. Still some do it merely for the benefit and the alleviation of responsibility too. The reasons are varied, but well-intentioned or not, these children end up in a situation that leads to tremendous psychological and physical abuse and far too often death. (read more…)