When I ventured forth with Cameras For Girls, I knew that my philanthropic outreach could not be just as simple as providing photography training; it had to mean much more. It had to show the power of photography in changing one's life.

One of the main reasons we started Cameras For Girls is to help girls in developing countries move past poverty, gender inequality, oppression, suppression, and sexual exploitation.

When I started my business Triple F Photo Tours, I knew I would take enthusiast and amateur photographers on a photo tour to Uganda. I knew I would be combining my passion for travel and photography, but I also wanted it to be about philanthropy and giving back to my home country of Uganda.

Giving a female a camera teaches her a valuable skill in seeing her world differently, and it also encourages her to tell stories that matter to her. In a society where the female voice is not heard or valued, this becomes her way to share her views and opinions objectively and be respected alongside her male peers.

I survive these days, remembering my first training that took place in August 2018. I first came up with the idea back in August 2017. At that time, I left a 15-year career in film and television and had embarked on a new career as a mortgage broker. I was a very successful mortgage broker, and I had even won a few awards, but I was not satisfied as the call of photography kept beckoning to me. However, I was not prepared to leave my well-paying job to just take photos for a living. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with that, and in fact, I do that with my other business Amina Mohamed Photography. On a personal level, leaving a well-paying job had to mean I was changing lives through the power of photography.

There were many challenges and roadblocks on the road to fulfilling this dream of teaching photography to local girls studying to become journalists. For instance, I thought I had settled on a school to learn that the girls cannot always attend school because their families needed them at home to fetch water, take care of the younger children or work in the family homestead. Worse was the fact that many young girls are married off as soon as they hit puberty and never get to attend school. In many cases, the schools lacked electricity, so it would be challenging to teach, let alone have enough light for them to operate a camera.