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.

On assignment as a videographer on UNICEF's Generation Future project

Nick Sells contacted me to work as a videographer to document UNICEF’s Generation Future programme in Cambodia. Generation Future is a mentorship programme for young Cambodians with big ideas. The project will form part of UNICEF’s celebration of World Children’s Day.

After being selected for the programme, a group of young Cambodians receive one-on-one guidance from accomplished mentors. They also get seed funding to budget for essential project costs and tailored training from UNICEF Cambodia. When they have completed the training, they take their projects into schools to engage other Cambodian youth about their ideas for social change.

The were a broad range of projects including projects about creating school gardens to grow vegetables, oral hygiene and engineering. The video follows the participants training and them delivering the training for their project at a numbers of schools in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The aim in the future is to expand the project, so school children all over the country can benefit.

It was a pleasure getting to meet the future generation of Cambodians. If they’re anything to go by, Cambodia is in safe hands. Hopefully the success of the project will mean that it returns in 2023.

You can watch the video below and see more examples of my videography work here and here.

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.

NGO videographer to cover school feeding programme | On Assignment with WFP

I was hired to work as an NGO videographer for World Food Programme (WFP) in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The video was to highlight the ongoing activities of World Food Programme’s (WFP) school feeding programme and the support that they receive from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The programme has helped to build infrastructure at schools. This includes gardens the children are responsible for tending to, where they grow healthy, green vegetables that are a vital source of nutrition in the meals that the school provides for them. They have also built handwashing stations, so that the children can wash their hands before eating. Having a facility such as this and training children in washing their hands with soap regularly is very important and has been shown to improve attendance rates.

Another key aspect is upgrading the cooking and the food storage facilities. This allows the school cooks to prepare food in a more hygienic environment. After getting up before the break of dawn the cooks trek across the rice paddies in the dark to make sure that the school children have a healthy, nutritious meal that helps them to stay healthy and improves their concentration when studying.

It’s always rewarding providing WFP with videography services and it’s great to see responsibility for the programme being handed over to the Royal Government of Cambodia.

Below are some frames from the video I shot. You can see other examples of my work as an NGO videographer for WFP here and here.

NGO Photographer in Siem Reap | On Assignment for Kiva

It was a great opportunity to work as a photographer and videographer with international NGO Kiva in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I spent two days photographing and filming a series of case studies about people who have taken out loans offered by Kiva to buy a cooking stove made by the social enterprise ACE. It was my first job through Storyhunter and will hopefully be the first of many.

The ACE stove is a great invention. It’s very efficient and within no time at all after turning the stove on and adding the biomass fuel there is a roaring fire that is hot enough to cook rice, stir fries and soups. The stove comes with a solar panel, so it perfect for people living off grid. It also has a USB port so it can be used to charge phones and other battery-powered electric devices and it’s smoke-less, so it’s a cheaper, quicker and healthier alternative to using charcoal which is commonly used in Cambodia.

It’s great to see how such a seemingly small thing can help improve people’s finances, save them time (if they collected fire wood) and contribute to improving their lives. The kind hospitality of the Khmer people is second-to-none. Everyone of the people we filmed and photographed invited us into their homes with open arms, were patient and had a good laugh. It really is one thing about Cambodia that makes the job easy, rewarding and fun.

Below are a selection of images from the couple of days I spent filming case studies and taking photos. You can see more examples of my work as an NGO photographer here and here.