Participatory photography shows the young people of St Thomas and Prince Islands that they can be changemakers, that they can be responsible for the construction of their own future!
We are three people whose life was changed by photography. We experienced the transforming power of participatory photography and due to that we want to spread and use this tool in order to replicate our experience.
In Click ToMé, by using visual resources and hands-on dynamics participants will experience a “double journey” within our project. By introducing attendants into the world of photography we will guide them through an inner journey within themselves. This is what we call a participatory photography process that in the end focuses on the expansion of the subject and its “self” in the world. Through that we empower people to give their point of view about their own reality so they can be engaged with the eagerness to transform their own lives.
With this methodology participants will have the opportunity to reflect on their lives, to develop critical thinking and creativity. By discovering their own talents, they will slowly recognize the richness and resources of their own communities and this will feed them with a deeper sense of belonging and higher self esteem.
We will be creating changemakers, that in the end of this training will be able to replicate this methodology and knowledge amongst their peers creating a domino effect that will benefit community as a whole. After the training, some participants may use photography as an hobby while others may find in it an alternative way to create a life project.
This project was born within the WACT organization, however it seeds were planted some years before within the field of the FOS Association, an NGO that designs and promotes photovoice participatory photography projects since 2013. FOS has the know-how, the experience and the essential tools that guarantee this project to be implemented in a professional way, fulfilling all the requirements of photovoice methodology – only in this way it is possible to create projects by which photography is used as a resource that leads to change.
In order to assure the implementation of the project we need resources that support an intensive training of approximately 120 hours on the field, performed by 2 daily workshops during 4 weeks.
After the training, the materials and resources will stay in São Tomé, under the responsibility of a local partner institution, allowing the young people to continue their work and development.
Why support us?
Because a photographic camera is more than an object that captures images, it is indeed an instrument that can educate people and change their lives. A photographic camera is a tool to observe, understand and show reality. Make a contribution in order to help us to change the life of these young people: by sharing their gaze with you they can also contribute to change your life!
By putting cameras into St Thomas people’s hands we want to give them a ‘voice’ which we want to be more and more from the inner to the outer world so that we access their reality through their own eyes, thus, reframing a world.
