SalaamGarage is a digital storytelling, citizen journalism organization that partners with International NGOs and local non-profits. Participants (amateur and professional photographers, writers, videographers, etc.) connect with international NGOs, create and share independent media projects that raise awareness and cause positive change in their online and offline social communities. They partner with grass roots, forward thinking organizations. Through our trips one experiences rare access to the work of social entrepreneurs that would otherwise go unreported, while engaging with local communities on an entirely new level.
Today marks the end of my fundraising campaign for Guatemala via Spot.us. I was truly honored to be the first international story published on Spot.us, and just wanted to give a proper goodbye and the biggest font size possible THANK YOU to everyone who supported me in one way or another :)
My SalaamGarage trip with Guatemala has absolutely changed me; I will never forget the things I learned, the people I met, and the experiences I had. It was phenomenal to see the work that Agros International is doing. I saw the literal change in people's lives. I heard the stories of families who survived the Civil War, and who continue to live off the land- but have been provided homes through Agros loans and repayment programs. I have seen entire villages who have graduated from their loan program which means that 20+ families were loaned money to build homes and paid off their loans with interest. The families often engaged in other entrepreneurial endeavours like owning a store, baking bread and selling it between the villages, buying and raising farm animals, planting and harvesting vegetables, creating a community bank, the list could go on and on.
The photos below are the success stories of the people I was honoured to have met and inspired by their undying will to survive and live. Below these photos is a full Flickr Slide show of pictures from Guatemala that show the lands rich landscapes and people.
Family in their store
Rosa showing us how to weave!
Rosa and Nicolas outside of their home
Two girls in the garden at their school
Gabriel and community member showing us their farm/crops
Guatemalan women in front of the community oven where they bake bread to sell in their village and across villages
Hen and chicks in Belen, Guatemala
Community leader Antonio in his greenhouse with tomato plants
Catarina with her certificate to be a midwife; she cannot read and still managed to be a midwife for 30+ years.
You can view more of Mira's photos in the Flickr photo slideshow. And there will be more coming. You can check the blog posts associated with this pitch for the latest updates.
We sincerely thank everyone who has helped to support Mira's work.
There are no comments yet, be the first!
