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.

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.