At home Nguyen Thi Cuc from Amanda Koster on Vimeo.
Project with PeaceTrees Vietnam and Cluster Munition Coalition.
Photography: Amanda Koster
Interview: Daysha Eaton
“At home: Nguyen Thi Cuc’s story”
Blog
Ho Van Lai’s Story: PeaceTrees Vietnam
At play: Ho Van Lai’s story from Amanda Koster on Vimeo.
Project with PeaceTrees Vietnam and Cluster Munition Coalition.
Photography: Amanda Koster
Interview: Daysha Eaton
“At play: Ho Van Ly’s story”
Le Van Thang’s Story: PeaceTrees Vietnam 2010
Story of rice farmer Ho Van Ly. Project with Peace Trees Vietnam and Cluster Munition Coalition.
At work: Le Van Thang’s story from Amanda Koster on Vimeo.
Project with PeaceTrees Vietnam and Cluster Munition Coalition.
Photography: Amanda Koster
Interview: Daysha Eaton
At work: Le Van Thang’s story
Sam Lee:Guatemala 2010
“The big hopes and dreams of the Ixil people we met are just like many of ours: better futures for their children. An important component of this is the ability to support their children’s education.”
Guatemala 2010: Sam Lee – Images by Sam Lee
Sam Lee
Sam Lee is a veteran in software and internet industry, from “baby-sitting” computers and websites to crunching numbers and identifying what the customers want. He is inspired to bring about sustainable social change, and has been exploring how to make use of his analytical training, inborn intuition, and interests in photography to help to this end.
With the trip to Guatemala, Sam was able to observe and document the lives of indigenous people first- hand, helping him to clarify his focus in bringing social changes.
As a recreational fútbol player, Sam was glad to play a pickup game with some of the children in Guatemala and reports that the kids’ footwork was miles ahead of his own!
Christina Cummings:Guatemala 2010
Partnering with Agros in 2001, these families from Nebaj survived the 36-year long civil war in Guatemala that primarily impacted rural indigenous families.
Guatemala 2010: Christina Cummings – Images by Christina Cummings
Christina Cummings is Program Liaison for Agros International, a Seattle-based nonprofit working to break the cycle of poverty for rural farming families in Central America and Mexico through land ownership. Christina has been with Agros for over four years, working directly with field staff from all five countries to strengthen program implementation and provide information from the field to Agros’ diverse constituencies.
Christina is fluent in Spanish, having lived in Spain during college and volunteered with Spanish-speaking refugee families while living in her hometown of Atlanta. She has traveled throughout Central America and Mexico with Agros. In her free time, Christina enjoys gardening, cooking, swing dancing, biking, and exploring the Northwest.
Louise Lakier: Diagnosis Survivor
Louise Lakier: Diagnosis Survivor – Images by Louise Lakier
Louise Lakier
Louise Lakier is a designer, construction manager, and photographer with a passion for sustainable living. Louise was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and currently resides in Seattle.
She has enjoyed documenting the construction process on various sites over the years and wants to turn her talents to positively impacting the lives of women and children by sharing their causes and stories with the world. She firmly believes that educating and empowering women will lead to a more sustainable and peaceful planet.
Kristie McLean: Advocacy of the Heart
I first came to Ethiopia with the idea of profiling women who had suffered from an obstetric fistula and who were now serving as advocates for other women.
Then I stumbled across three men waiting in the parking lot outside of Hamlin Hospital. They told me they had just arrived from western Ethiopia and had brought three women in for treatment. These were kind-hearted Ethiopian men bringing agonized, shamed women to a hospital where they could hopefully reclaim their health. Along with these examples of empathy, I also saw other men cradling their wives’ heads in their laps as the women waited to be examined. My personal observations contrasted sharply with the stories I had heard about all Ethiopian men abandoning or divorcing their wives after they suffered from obstetric fistula. Surely, this does happen. But clearly it does not always happen. And that is a triumph and a blessing all its own.
This awareness of how men can play a pivotal, though often unrecognized, role re-shaped my vision and brought forth a new story. It shifted my focus from a smaller, more commonly cited frame of sisterhood to a larger view of a human community and the way that each part and each effort contributes mightily to the whole.
Then I stumbled across three men waiting in the parking lot outside of Hamlin Hospital. They told me they had just arrived from western Ethiopia and had brought three women in for treatment. These were kind-hearted Ethiopian men bringing agonized, shamed women to a hospital where they could hopefully reclaim their health. Along with these examples of empathy, I also saw other men cradling their wives’ heads in their laps as the women waited to be examined. My personal observations contrasted sharply with the stories I had heard about all Ethiopian men abandoning or divorcing their wives after they suffered from obstetric fistula. Surely, this does happen. But clearly it does not always happen. And that is a triumph and a blessing all its own.
This awareness of how men can play a pivotal, though often unrecognized, role re-shaped my vision and brought forth a new story. It shifted my focus from a smaller, more commonly cited frame of sisterhood to a larger view of a human community and the way that each part and each effort contributes mightily to the whole.
Kristie McLean: Advocacy of the Heart – Images by Tsega Mekonnen
Kristie McLean
Kristie McLean is a Seattle-based documentary photographer, writer, and professional coach with a passion for empowering others through conversations and images. She has traveled to more than 50 countries on six continents and is dedicated to raising awareness of social issues and sharing those stories across diverse networks and communities. Over the years, Kristie has profiled unexploded ordinances in Laos, child brides in Afghanistan, access to clean water in rural Kenya, and drug-and-alcohol-free First Nation communities in the Pacific Northwest.
Kristie’s photography has been showcased at two global summits in Europe and Asia, respectively. Both the “Women of the World” and the “Sacred Connections” exhibits raised awareness of peaceful tourism initiatives, sustainable community development, and measures to alleviate poverty. Her work has also appeared in numerous books, magazines, and websites, including Women of the World: Afghanistan and Guinea-Bissau, published by Blurb.
Kristie traveled with SalaamGarage in 2010 to Ethiopia to highlight the issue of obstetric fistula. She believes unfailingly that empowering images and ongoing conversations can, and do, change the world.
More of her work can be seen at www.travelpoet.com.
Ponzi Black: Village Life in Ethiopia
Living without clean water, electricity, medical care, or transportation, as 80% of Ethiopia’s population does, is a hard life. It also fosters community sharing, love for one’s neighbor, and a genuine closeness among the people. Technologically-adept city natives should take lessons on social graces from those that live rurally. Many a time, I thought of the sweetness and caring they showed one another and was touched. I am reminded of how far we have gone “within” ourselves as a nation, in the U.S., and away from personal contact.
Ponzi Black – Village Life in Ethiopia – Images by Ponzi Black
Ponzi Black
Ponzi Black is a media producer and tech innovator. Ponzi’s name at birth was Latthanapon Indharasophang, and her talents are as diverse as the letters in that name. Ponzi’s expertise is in mortgage banking, but her heart is in the arts. Her secret desire is to take a year or two and travel around the world. She prizes nothing more than experiencing different cultures and meeting new people. This is Ponzi’s second trip with SalaamGarage!
Veronica Gray & Robert Daily: Window To The Soul of Ethiopia
Veronica Gray and Robert Daly: Window to the Soul of Ethiopia – Images by Veronica Gray & Robert Daily
Veronica Gray
is a prominent trial lawyer at Nossaman Law Firm in Orange County, California, with over three decades of experience litigating and negotiating employment issues for her clients. She leads the Employment Practice Group.
Over the span of Veronica’s career, she has taken on a leadership role in many professional and philanthropic organizations on a local and international level, with a focus on micro-enterprise and children’s education.
Veronica is also a passionate photographer, and her remote travel has allowed her to capture the striking close-up images of the indigenous people she interacts with in places like Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, India, China, Kenya, Ecuador, Peru, and Nicaragua. What started out as herprivate passion turned into an opportunity to share them with those in her community who would not otherwise have access to remote areas of the world. Veronica has donated her photography to many non-profits to support their fund raising efforts, and her photography has been on exhibition at the Chapman University School of Law and the Peter Blake Gallery in Orange County, and in Orange Coast Magazine.
Robert Daily
Robert Daily is retired and lives with his wife Veronica Gray in Laguna Beach. He is a seasoned social worker and educator, working with students, families of abused children, juveniles, and adult criminal offenders. He is also a mentor and tutor. To relax, Robert plays golf and tennis, the guitar and piano, and occasionally paints a picture or writes a poem. He has traveled extensively in Asia and South America.
Sarah Henderson: Women of Wax and Gold
Sarah Henderson-Women of Wax and Gold – Images by Sarah Henderson
Sarah Henderson
Sarah Henderson focuses her camera and producing skills on global issues of our time: humanity, sustainability, travel, art, and culture. An internationally published photographer, her work for magazines such as Delta SKY, Wallpaper, Edible Portland, Alaska Airlines, Paste, and Zink has opened her eyes and heart to combine travel photography with relevant stories that hopefully contribute to a better world.
When possible, Sarah enjoys partaking in fine art shows at venues such as Newspace, photoblogging on modern art culture for www.PORTlandart.net and contributing to boutique photo agency based out of Europe, www.plainpicture.com. Her passion for photography has expanded into the motion picture realm as a producer, creative director, and director of photography for documentaries dealing with lifestyle, sports, and environment. This new paradigm even applies to her corporate clients from Nike and Intel to Red Bull, from a world class Olympic runner fighting to preserve water quality, to scientists working to improve breast cancer screening methods, to extreme sports athletes giving back to the endangered environments where they ride. Sarah is excited to marry her passion for photography with cross-cultural issues to do more “good” for others more often. She sees the SalaamGarage trip as an opportunity to give, learn, and share with other talented visual storytellers of our time—to embark upon journeys greater than ourselves. To collaborate with people in the name of causes beyond our own noses is a very good and essential thing.
