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.

Working in the field as a cameraperson for the NGO United World Schools

It was great to see some of the footage I shot while working as a cameraperson for the NGO United World Schools (UWS) used as part of their Girls Will Be Girls campaign. I took the images when on assignment for Arete Stories.

It was a cool initiative where the UK government matched any donations made by the public so that more girls living in remote jungle areas around the world can benefit from a good education.

Seeing the video brought back fond memories of the week I spent working as a cameraperson in Preah Vihear and Ratinikiri, both remote provinces in northern Cambodia. We visited a village where UWS were building schools right up on the Laos border, and got to see one of their schools in action in a remote village in Ratanikiri. It was a particularly memorable experience travelling up the Sasam River in a small boat through the verdant, tropical vistas.

You can see more examples of my work as a cameraperson for NGOs here and more about my trip with UWS here.

Working as a videographer for the NGO Kiva in Siem Reap, Cambodia

I spent three days working as a videographer and photographer for the international NGO Kiva to document a series of case studies to show how their work providing with people with loans so they can buy energy-efficient ACE cooking stoves helps to improve their livelihoods.

I worked closely with the team at ACE who are based in Siem Reap. We filmed five case studies with a mixture of male and female loanees who have bought the stove to give a representation of their typical customers.

All of the people we interviewed said that the stove had helped them save money in terms of the fuel costs, which is particularly important as rural Cambodian continues to recover from Covid-19.

Other opinions included that Kiva’s loan product was well-structured and without being able to pay the loan back in installments, they wouldn’t have been able to buy the stove. Other benefits included the ease of use and the fact that it produces less smoke than conventional stoves which is better for their health and their houses don’t get covered in soot.

It’s a great initiative and it was great to see how the stoves had reduced people’s fuel costs to free up money for them to spend on other essential items. Hopefully the videos can be used as a marketing to encourage more people to provide more loans for good causes like this one.

To find out more about the type of loans Kiva offer and how to get involved, you can visit their website.

Below are some frames from the footage I shot. You can see some of the photographs I took here and for more of my work an NGO videographer, you can watch my reel here.