Working as an NGO Photographer Covering Leprosy Elimination for WHO in Cambodia

After a successful collaboration with WHO last year, it was great to be asked to work as a documentary photographer to produce another photo essay as part of their People of the Western Pacific Series.

The brief was to produce 25 photos to tell the story of Visal and the invaluable work that he does in eliminating leprosy from Cambodia.

Visal works for the National Center for Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control, under the Ministry of Health, and has been instrumental in implementing the National Programme for Leprosy Elimination.

Visal is dedicated and passionate about his work and even faced discrimination from his own family. They asked him not to visit his home town before he educated them about how easily treatable the disease is.

I spent a day taking photos of Visal as he worked in the community.

I photographed Visal conducting a training session, speaking to the local health authorities to explain their activities and conducting screening in the community.

At the end of the day, we visited a couple who both had leprosy and suffered disabilities as a result.

Visal’s work has helped to reduce the stigma within their community and he’s helped them to establish a chicken husbandry business that helps them to be financially independent.

Visal has also been instrumental in establishing networks using social media to help identify new cases. This has been very effective, particularly when working with people from remote areas, which is where most new cases are detected.

Leprosy is easily treatable and can be eliminated from Cambodia.

Due to the hard work of people like Visal, there are very few new leprosy cases in Cambodia and by educating people, their work has helped to reduce the stigma.

I wish them luck in achieving their goal.

You can see more of my photography work for WHO here. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any NGO photography projects you would like to discuss.

Veasna's Story - Working as an NGO videographer on a case study for VSO

This is the second case study I made on assignment as an NGO videographer for VSO.

The video tells the story of Veasna and the positive impact VSO’s RECOVER project has had on her livelihood.

As part of the project, Veasna received agricultural training and financial support to improve her growing facilities.

Held in the community with other vegetable growers the training shows Veasna best practices about what to grow, how to grow it and pest control.

Veasna has used the financial support she received to construct a net house for growing higher value crops.

VSO have also set up agricultural cooperatives. This gives the vegetable growers additional selling power as the cooperative can sell larger quantites direct to market.

They sign contracts to guarantee fair prices for their vegetables and a constant source of income.

A storage facility has also been built in the community so the vegetable growers can store their vegetables to cut down on wastage and to be able to control the sale of the vegetables they grow to the market.

It was great to see the positive relationship Veasna had with Ravuth, the trainer, and how she is looking to expand her growing activities in the future so she can support her young family.

Below is the final video:

And here’s the shorter version I made for social media:

You can see the other case study I made for VSO here and another video I made for WHO here. Please get in touch if you have any NGO video projects you’d like to chat about.     

On Assignment as an NGO videographer for VSO

I was contracted by the NGO VSO to work as a videographer to produce 2 case studies to highlight their RECOVER project.

The RECOVER project, funded by the EU, is a technical vocational education and training programme (TVET) designed to help people in rural communities recover after the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is important to provide viable livelihoods for the almost 75 percent of people in Cambodia living in rural communities, to alleviate poverty and to prevent people having to migrate for work.

This video tells the story of Thavy. Thavy worked in South Korea, but when COVID-19 hit, she wanted to return home to be with her family.

Thavy enrolled in an agroprocessing course run by VSO where she learnt to make banana chips, which she now sells in her shop to supplement her income. 

The chips are a healthy snack enjoyed be people in her village. The TVET training has taught Thavy valuable entrepreneurial skills. She’s looking at adding new flavours and expanding her product line and it allows her to live at home and look after her elderly mum. 

Here’s the final video:

As part of the project, I also made a shorter version of the video for social media, which hopefully expands the reach of the campaign.

You can see more examples of my NGO videos here. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you would like to discuss any NGO video projects.

Videographer on a case study for the World Health Organisation in Cambodia

I was asked by the World Health Organisation (WHO)'s Western Pacific office to work as a videographer in Cambodia on a regional series of videos they were making to highlight the work that they do throughout the region.

The assignment was to produce a 2-3-min video on a case study about a garment factory worker who had received primary healthcare to document WHO’s primary health care activities in Cambodia. The video is part of a broader campaign by the regional office that included stories from 21 countries.

Although it was a challenging subject matter the participant was understanding and patient. She gave a great interview to explain how she may have died if she hadn’t received the primary health care she did free of charge as part the work that the WHO does in Cambodia.

It was greatly appreciated for her to invite us into her house and let us film her at her work place, at the local healthcare clinic and in her community with her friends.

The regional office were a pleasure to work with. They were clear in their process and provided a good model for what they wanted. I look forward to hopefully collaborating with them on future projects.

You can see more examples of my work as an NGO videographer for case studies here and here.