asia Archives - Jake Lyell

Post Tagged with: "asia"

ChildFund in the Philippines

November 9, 2019

These days my work with ChildFund involves getting to the heart of what the organization does through personal video storytelling. I’ve been talking to current and former sponsored children, and their parents, to see how participation in the program leads to transformation in their lives today and puts them on solid ground when they move on to adulthood. Hazel, whose profile is shown above, is a current sponsored child living in rural Mindanao, while Ana Maeh, below, grew up in the program and is now a teacher in Manila. Their stories would be entirely different had not someone from far away made the decision to intervene in their lives. All photographs and video copyright Jake Lyell Photography, LLC 2019. All rights reserved.

Smiles from Timor-Leste

November 28, 2016

One thing I love about working with ChildFund is the bit of extra time they sometimes allow me to focus my lens on a country’s culture and daily life. In addition to shooting a few videos recently for the organization in Timor-Leste, I also shot these photographs, which give bit of insight into the country’s people and the terrain that is their home. Special emphasis was also placed on the beautiful practice of traditional Timorese weaving, seen below, which is a livelihood for many women on the island.

Give Me Shelter

May 26, 2015

I wasn’t just documenting broken lives and devastated villages during my assignments this month in Nepal. Here are a couple of short videos I produced of the earthquake response for Catholic Relief Services and ChildFund. Much-needed shelter and food distributions are still taking place in the wake of the two massive quakes that struck earlier this month.

Wonder of the Kathmandu Valley

March 3, 2015

Wedged between the Indian subcontinent and the lofty Himalayas, Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley is a place where various cultures and religions meld together to create a spiritual fusion. While anthropologists may say otherwise, locals will tell you there is no distinction between Buddhism and Hinduism here. With settlements dating back as far as 130BC, the valley is home to the most dense collection of UNESCO World Heritage Sites anywhere in the world. Filming took place over four early mornings at some of Kathmandu’s most sacred and ancient temples, as well as on the every day streets of this bustling metropolis.

Dream Bikes

July 29, 2013

In rural India, students must walk long distances just to get to school. These long walks contribute to frequent tardiness, absenteeism, or even dropping out completely, especially for girls. While some of this may be due to social pressures that traditionally assign girls to the role of domestic helper, another major contributing factor is the insecurity and danger of walking these long distances alone. Hirabai is one of the girls completing her education thanks to the gift of a bicycle through ChildFund’s Dream Bikes program.

Focus on Early Childhood Development

July 19, 2013

I’m currently half-way through a series of videos highlighting ChildFund’s niche-core program, its Early Childhood Development program, known as ECD. It’s an assignment that, once completed, will have taken me to six different countries on four different continents. In a country where children battle with epidemics like malaria and malnutrition, ChildFund’s ECD program in India is not just allowing kids to survive, but also to thrive. By working with parents and caregivers to target children in the first five years of life, ChildFund transforms the communities in which children grow, allowing them to reach their maximum potential in life.

Indian Summer

June 5, 2013

While on my way to some rural areas of Maharashtra state, I took a moment to see how some of Mumbai’s 21 million residents spend their afternoon. I’ve made it to India at the height of summer, but I much prefer the 100°F+ dry heat of June to the extreme humidity to come in July and August, which has rendered my lenses useless in the past. India is both the extraordinary and the execrable, and sadly I’ve grown much too acclimated to the latter. The level of poverty seen here brings about a feeling of hopelessness. But as I’ll show from a couple of video pieces I’m creating now, even at unlikely odds, the battle is winnable.

Forging New Paths in Asia

September 22, 2012

I recently returned from a whirlwind assignment through Indonesia and the Philippines where I shot three video pieces for ChildFund. Footage in the above piece was combined with coverage I shot earlier this year in Sri Lanka in order to give a broad overview of ChildFund‘s Early Childhood Development programs funded by Fonterra Dairy in Asia. ChildFund is rebuilding schools and community centers that were damaged or destroyed during Sri Lanka’s decades-long conflict and opening new centers in remote areas of Indonesia and the Philippines, working in-step with parents and community members along the way. The new centers foster social and cognitive development for children and provide a venue where parents can learn about proper sanitation and nutrition for their families. The work impacts the very future of these countries by helping to raise a generation of bright, educated, and healthy children.

a (re)productive year

December 13, 2010

With assignments in six different countries throughout the world, PSI has filled up at least a terabyte’s worth of hard drive space in RAW and video files for me this year and has kept me busy enough to fall behind on my blogging. While Population Services International has programs in a number of areas in global health, I’ve primarily been documenting their reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention programs along with the lives of the women who have been helped. All of the following were taken in Mali, Cameroon, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Above, Kono Cecile receives a hormonal implant in her arm at a clinic in Yaounde, Cameroon. The implant will prevent her from having children in the next five years and allow her to concentrate on better raising the children she already has. Banconi is a crowded suburb in Mali’s capital, Bamako. Mariam Sangare, shown above at her children’s bath[…]

Zooming ’round Hanoi

November 14, 2010

It’s my first assignment outside Africa this year, and my first time ever to travel to Vietnam. I had some free time to explore the streets of Hanoi this afternoon, which were supposedly sleepy compared to a weekday. I’ll have the next few days to draw comparisons. While the word chaotic comes to mind, the roadways and motorbike taxis are actually a bit more civil than what I’m used to in Uganda. After several hours of meandering I gave up trying to find the Hanoi Hilton and Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, instead making it my goal to reach it to the city’s waterfront.