35 posts categorized "Multimedia"

Grammy Award winners The Civil Wars are receiving acclaim for their song with Taylor Swift, “Safe and Secure,” for the upcoming Hunger Games film, but many don't know that singing duo scored another film about hunger, the documentary Finding North, about hunger in America. [Stay tuned for my interview with the directors of Finding North, coming out Monday!]

In this interview below, Joy Williams and John Paul White, the artists behind The Civil Wars, talk about how they became involved in this groundbreaking documentary through the guidance of T Bone Burnett, one of the best producers in the music industry. “We could not have been more stoked about it,” John Paul White said.

It’s clear that hunger is an important issue for The Civil Wars. Joy Williams explains the importance of seeing a film like Finding North in order to understand the larger, systemic problems of hunger in America:

Forty-four million people go to bed hungry in America and don’t know where their next meal is coming from, and so [Finding North] highlights food insecurity in the United States, which basically means food deserts where people literally don’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. [The film] definitely puts a face to what I would consider an epidemic in the United States.

It’s refreshing to hear Williams talk about hunger so knowledgeably and it’s my hope that their involvement in the documentary will get more people to watch the film, learn about hunger, and begin advocating for poor and hungry people in their communities.

Watch the interview with The Civil Wars below:

Jeannie Choi is associate editor at Bread for the World. Follow her on Twitter at @jeanniechoi.

+Learn how to advocate for poor and hungry people. 

Photo caption: Screenshot from Magnifier video.

Sister Margaret Mary Kimmins, the catholic church relations liaison at Bread for the World, delivered a reflection at the Franciscan Mission Service for their inaugural Sunday Souposium. Her talk, entitled "Francis in his time, Franciscan in our time," focused on how Christians are called to be in relationship with God:

Several years ago there was a question that was very popular: What would Jesus do? Do you remember that? And it was, "WWJD?" It was all over the place from bumper stickers to bracelets, really.

It's a good question. It's a reminder of Jesus's example of how to act. However, for Francis, Jesus was not only a reminder, an example, a person to be imitated, but a brother, a lord, the Word of God, the revealer of God, and the center of the Spirit.

So the relationship of Francis to Jesus was so real and so intimate that he was called to imitate Jesus not only in what Jesus did, but also in how Jesus lived: humbly, courageously, gently, directing everyone and everything to God. The incarnate Jesus is the extravagant love of God.

Below are three video excerpts of Sister Margaret Mary's talk. Watch, listen, meditate, and share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Learn more about the Franciscan Mission Service.

These women are part of a sewing/tailoring workshop at a family center run by MRDS.org in Sulaymaniyah, northern Iraq. (Copyrighted photo courtesy of Heber Vega)

If people remember a photograph, they are more likely to remember the issue or event that goes along with it. As a photographer, I try to take memorable and striking photos that will help our members remember the issues of  hunger and poverty.

But when it comes to photographing hunger and poverty-related issues, there's the added responsibility of maintaining the dignity of the people being photographed. It's what I aim for in my photography for Bread for the World, and it's what these photographers do well on their blogs.

Here are my top five humanitarian photo blogs, in no particular order:

• Esther Havens is an American photographer whose work I first stumbled upon on the Charity:Water blog. Her vibrant pictures capture people's strength, dignity, and unique personalities. Some of her pictures are even funny -- which is rare in humanitarian photography -- as you can see in this blog post about Rwandan boys participating in an education and food program. Don't miss her post about the reality of working as a humanitarian photographer.

• Ikuru Kuwajima is based in Kazhakstan and works around Central Asia, an area that I hadn't seen many pictures of before following Ikuru's blog. From people rebuilding their lives in Kyrgyzstan to Armenians still coping with the aftermath of a 1988 earthquake, Ikuru's pictures reflect his journalism background, but with an artist's sensibilities. He also spent time last year in Japan -- his home country -- documenting the aftermath of the earthquake and nuclear plant emergency.

• Glenna Gordon, an American photojournalist, shuttles between West Africa and New York, but used to live in Liberia, where she photographed for newspapers and NGOs. If you're looking for news and music from Africa, plus fresh photographs and introspective commentary about life in Africa, then you'll enjoy Glenna's blog, Scarlett Lion. Her photo story on Harper, Liberia, a decaying coastal town, is a must-see.

• Heber Vega is a humanitarian aid worker-turned-photographer who has been based in Iraq since 2003. His blog is a mix of his own photography -- like this post on photographing women in a Muslim Country; interviews with other photographers; and advice on photographic techniques. One thing that impresses me about Heber, who's from Chile, has nothing to do with his pictures: he founded The ONE-SHOT Project, a nonprofit that teaches photography and multimedia skills to Iraqi children.

• Photo Philanthropy is well-known in photography circles for promoting photography for social change. Every year since 2009, the organization has granted awards for the best humanitarian photo stories from professional and amateur photographers (full disclosure: I entered the contest in its first year and didn't win). The blog features pictures, interviews with Photo Philanthropy award winners and grantees, and opportunities for photographers to work with nonprofits.

If you know any other humanitarian photo blogs that you like to visit, please share them with us in the comments. And don't forget to check out Bread for the World's Flickr stream and the Bread Blog for beautiful photos and compelling stories.


(Copyrighted photo courtesy of Esther Havens)

Laura Elizabeth Pohl is multimedia manager at Bread for the World. 

Federal nutrition programs are finding ways to connect the people who rely on them with a healthy selection of foods. Photo by Jim Stipe.

I recently wrote about the polarized campaigns and public support for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps). A reader just sent me a great NPR story focused on these issues and I wanted to share it with you all.

I particularly recommend listening for their interview with Kisha Castillo of Silver Spring, MD. Like so many, Kisha never thought she would have to rely on SNAP, but has become a victim of the stagnant economy. This story reflects what we know is true: SNAP is a lifeline for millions of Americans who are struggling to put food on the table. Check it out here.

Ben D'Avanzo is Mimi Meehan Fellow at Bread for the World. 

+Learn more about SNAP and how you can take action.

Screenshot from "Educate the Future" by the Global Campaign for Education.

“To get to school, I had to walk barefoot three miles, uphill both ways.”

You might be used to hearing this joke, poking fun at our parents’ and grandparents’ views on how “kids today” have got it so easy, compared to what they had to endure in order to receive an education. But all over the world, there are millions of “kids today” who are actually living this reality every day.

Around the world, 69 million children don’t have easy access to education, if they have the opportunity to go to school at all, according to the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), an organization dedicated to promoting access to education as a human right. Nearly 250 million children have to work in order to help their families get by, and it’s hard enough to study for hours without having to worry about helping your family pay their day to day bills … especially when you’re a child.

The GCE is trying to change those figures, by organizing faith-based groups, NGOs, foundations, teachers unions, and other organizations to create a coalition to advocate for a greater emphasis on education as a priority in poverty-focused development assistance.

In a new video showcasing some of the group’s youngest activists, teenage students stand in front of the Capitol building, spelling out “Education for All” with a paper-chain of links decorated by other supporters of the initiative.

One girl emphatically states that she doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up, but that she thinks that’s the beauty of education — because it gives her the opportunity to choose from so many potential career paths. For many children around the world, the chance to simply have a career is more than they can ask for.

Hopefully someday, the parents worldwide who had to say, “I walked miles without shoes to get to school,” will have children who will  someday joke about it as well—because everyone will have easy access to quality education, and “those days” will just be a memory.  

To learn more about the Global Campaign for Education, watch the video below or check out their website at campaignforeducation.org

Emily Warne is a communications intern at Bread for the World.

This red dirt road leads to St. Francis Health Care Services, an HIV/AIDS clinic in Jinja, Uganda, near the source of the Nile River.  (Video story at the end of this blog post.)

At the end of a red dirt road, near the source of the Nile River is St. Francis Health Care Services, an HIV/AIDS clinic serving some of the poorest people in Jinja District, Uganda. The power is out at the clinic, but no one is fazed.

The pharmacists continue to dispense medicine to their patients out of their small office, as sunlight streams through windows despite the drawn curtains. The medical assistants continue to diagnose patients, who wait their turn while sitting in blue plastic chairs in the hallway. And Faustine Ngarambe -- founder and executive director of St. Francis Health Care Services -- continues to work on plans to expand the clinic's programs, which serve about 600 people per week.

"HIV is not only a health issue; it’s economical, it is psychological, it is even a cultural taboo -- all of those things," said Ngarambe. He doesn't have a medical background, but in 2009, he won the Parliamentary HIV/AIDS Leadership Award from Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

St. Francis offers its patients services that heal not only the body, but the mind as well: counseling, nutrition and agriculture education, financial assistance, support groups for young people and grandmothers, and more. It's this kind of holistic approach to HIV/AIDS care that has made Uganda an oft-cited role model for decreasing HIV/AIDS rates. HIV prevalence in Uganda is currently at 6 to 7 percent, according to a UNAIDS report released yesterday, down from about 14 percent in 1990, according to this UNAIDS study from 2010.

Ngarambe became interested in HIV/AIDS care in 1989 while working as a missionary in Kenya. A Ugandan friend was HIV positive, but wouldn't disclose his diagnosis; the stigma was too great.

"He was dying silently within himself," said Ngarambe. "And when he was brought back to Uganda for burial, even his parents did not even view the body."

When Ngarambe returned Uganda, he and four colleagues started St. Francis Health Care Services. The clinic has grown from just five staff members and no permanent facilities in 1998, to 37 staff members, 100 community volunteers, and two permanent treatment facilities in 2011.

In a grassy field near St. Francis's main building sits Ngarambe's latest project: A maternity ward -- half-finished and in need of more funding -- that will specialize in prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmision. The ward is a result of the United Nations designation of Uganda as one of 22 priority countries for eliminating mother-to-child transmission.

St. Francis receives financial support from local and international sources, including the Stephen Lewis Foundation and Nile Breweries, but finances -- as well as a lack of enough equipment, space, and staff -- are always a concern. In addition, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said last week it will cut funding to several countries, including Uganda. This could hurt the nationwide effort to fight AIDS.

Still, Ngarambe presses forward.

"The thing that motivates me very much," he said, "is because I've touched peoples' lives and restored -- as our slogan -- restoring hope and dignity of the people who have been devastated by the HIV/AIDS epidemic."

Laura Elizabeth Pohl is multimedia manager at Bread for the World.

Florence, left, teaches science at The Great Ones Pre-School in Mpika, Zambia. (Screen shot from the film "The Great Ones Pre-School")

The 11 young women who run The Great Ones Pre-School exemplify the old proverb, "Give a person a fish and they eat for a day. Teach a person to fish and they eat for life." Esnart, Naomi, and their colleagues grew up poor in rural Zambia. Many of them lost one or both parents, leaving their guardians struggling to pay school fees, according to this case study from the University of Pennsylvania. Then they received leadership and entrepreneurship training -- the ability to fish, so to speak -- from Camfed, an organization that educates and empowers girls to be leaders. They decided to open a pre-school for vulnerable children -- kids who lived just like they did years earlier -- and they now teach 52 students.

"A lot of people say that if you are poor, there is nothing you can do in the future," says Naomi, in the film below. "What I have learned is that even if you are poor, you can do something in your life. At least in the future, you can learn, and you can become somebody one day."

Watch the short video to learn more about The Great Ones Pre-School.

This story is part of our Wednesday ViewChange video series.

  Laura Elizabeth Pohl is multimedia manager at Bread for the World.

Screenshot from A Peace of Bread website.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, there’s going to be a lot on television: holiday baking specials, animated Santa shows, and commercials for the newest “gotta-have-it” toy. Unfortunately, what we’ve really “gotta-have” -- greater awareness of hunger in America -- is getting little airtime.

Every holiday season, there are children who aren’t opening presents or celebrating with a Christmas feast. Surrounded by our own blessings, it can be more difficult to think of those in need and those who are hungry. A new documentary, A Peace of Bread: Faith, Food, and the Future, is looking to change that by bringing attention to the problem of hunger in the United States by highlighting the uplifting work of young activists across the country.

Produced by Diva Communications and being shown by ABC, the film looks at faith-based groups, including Bread for the World, and the different approaches they are taking to end hunger. Several Bread staff members, including Rev. David Beckmann, Rev. Derrick Boykin, Holly Hight, and other activists, are featured in the film.

For a little inspiration to start off your holiday season, be sure to watch A Peace of Bread when it plays in your area. Find out when A Peace of Bread will air by checking the broadcasting schedule here.

Emily Warne is a communications intern at Bread for the World.

Siblings Sherilyn Shepard (left) and Ricky Horton (right) are former tobacco farmers who now grow produce in Blackwater, VA. (Sherilyn photograph by Brad Horn for Bread for the World, Ricky photograph by Laura Elizabeth Pohl/Bread for the World.)

One of the hardest parts of creating a short film such as "In Short Supply" -- Bread for the World's companion video story to the 2012 Hunger Report -- is finding the right people to be in it. Unless you're a wanna-be reality star, who wants cameras following them around in their daily lives? That's why knowing a trusted insider -- someone who's trusted by both you (the storyteller) and the potential people who could be in your story -- is key.

In the case of "In Short Supply," Bread's trusted insider was Robin Robbins, the food safety and marketing manager at Appalachian Harvest, an organization that helps small farmers market and distribute their organic produce. Robin and I met back in April when my colleague, Todd Post, and I traveled down to southwestern Virginia to report on Appalachian Harvest's operations. Robin showed us around the organization's packing house (which you can see in the video story below), explained their processes, and took us out to her own farm. She even gave Todd and me fragrant little pots of basil, rosemary, and stevia from her greenhouse.

Screen shot of Robin Robbins, Appalachian Harvest's food safety and marketing manager, who was instrumental in helping Bread for the World identify Sherilyn Shepard and Ricky Horton for our short film "In Short Supply."

A few months later, when I wanted to film a story about small farmers, I contacted Robin to help me. She's a real firecracker who gets things done. I needed a very specific kind of person to be in the video story, so I explained to Robin what I was looking for and why. As a filmmaker, it's important for me to explain the "why" part, because often people who don't work as visual storytellers might not understand all the research and mechanics that go into producing a good visual story. For example, when I film or photograph a story, I need people to actually be doing things -- like picking tomatoes or driving a tractor -- so that I have compelling photos and video. It's not interesting to film or photograph people talking about what it's like to pick tomatoes or drive a tractor. Also, capturing real moments as they happen requires spending a lot of time with people.

I emailed Robin in mid-July and asked if she knew a farmer who we could spend nearly all of our time documenting. I told her the person would need to be:

*   A former tobacco farmer who used to receive government subsidies
*   A person who generates a substantial income from growing produce
*   A person who's involved with ASD [Appalachian Sustainable Development, the parent organization for Appalachian Harvest]
*   A person who will be doing actual work on his/her farm while we're there
*   A person who is articulate and open and not afraid or shy around cameras
*   Preferably a person with a family - spouse/partner and kids (to show interaction with other people)

Robin, being the rock star she is, found three farmers who fit the bill. My colleague Molly Marsh, freelancer Brad Horn, and I drove down to Duffield, VA, on July 22 and met the farmers that night in Appalachian Harvest's packing house. Robin came in and out of our informal meeting since she was busy grading produce and packing it for distribution. The rest of us sat around a table getting to know each other.

Afterwards, Molly, Brad, and I decided Ricky Horton and his sister Sherilyn Shepard would be wonderful people for our short film. We asked, they accepted, and then Molly, Brad, and I spent most of the next several days filming, photographing, and recording audio of Ricky and Sherilyn's daily lives. We stood in wet cucumber fields and climbed on tractors. We learned about pink eye in cows and water damage to tomatoes. I feel we all came to a mutual understanding and respect for each others' work; spending a week together can do that for you.

What makes Ricky and Sherilyn great characters for this story is their down-to-earthness, and their frank way of explaining things. One of my favorites parts of the film is when Ricky says, "It takes work to grow vegetables. It's more or less just a living thing like you are: It's got its ups and downs, and has its good times and bad times." What a great comparison. You and I -- we're just like tomatoes or cucumbers!

I'm grateful that Ricky, Sherilyn, their families, and their employees allowed us into their lives. When you watch the video, it's one week of life compressed into 12-and-a-half minutes. But really, the story began back in April, with my visit to Appalachian Harvest and a meeting with Robin Robbins, a trusted insider.

Laura Elizabeth Pohl is multimedia manager at Bread for the World.

I hate math. To force me to learn my multiplication tables, my father used to set the timer on the microwave over and over again, until I could finish a page of equations before the “ding!” To this day I stop a microwave before it finishes, but that doesn’t mean I’m not grateful.

My father understood the value of investing time, effort, and money in one girl’s education—mine. Around the world, however, there are millions of girls who aren’t as lucky. It’s no secret that girls are disproportionately affected by poverty, inaccessibility to education, and sexually-transmitted diseases. In fact, 25 percent of girls in developing countries are not in school, according to the Girl Effect project, which empowers adolescent girls to improve the future of their world through helping them improve their own.

Women’s education and empowerment in developing countries has implications that go far beyond test scores. Without an education, many of them will be married, have children, and contract HIV in the same amount of time it took me to learn how to drive. Alternatively, each extra year of school a mother receives reduces the probability of her infant’s mortality by 5 to 10 percent. Also, a child born to a literate mother is twice as likely to survive to age 5 as a child born to an illiterate mother.

How’s that for some multiplication?

Those numbers become more poignant when you consider that the first 1,000 days of a child's life, from pregnancy to age 2, are critical for establishing a healthy foundation. Malnourishment or under-nutrition in this small window has irreversible and lifelong physical and cognitive consequences. That’s why organizations like the 1,000 Days initiative work to provide pregnant women and their young children with the nutritional building blocks they need to break the cycle of poverty.

To find out more about what organizations like Girl Effect are doing to get people to care about educating girls, check out their video below. (Also, read reflections from Bread for the World's delegation to Africa!)

Emily Warne is a communications intern at Bread for the World.