Amina Mohamed, founded Cameras For Girls to change the lives of girls and women in Uganda, through the power of photography.
Vivian Nantambi took our 3-day photography workshop in 2019, followed by our year-long online training, and built her career as an Executive Director of a non-profit called The Network Girls Tech Initiative Uganda.
Female journalists in developing countries often make 60 percent less than men with the same skill sets.
Joyce Kimani is a young and talented Kenyan young woman, who attended my last Cameras For Girls training in Kampala, Uganda. She was in Uganda to earn her degree in Mass Communications and Journalism from Makerere University. This would be our last training in June 2019 before COVID hit and everything was stopped.
Brandy Valentine Azeirwe attended the Cameras For Girls’ second photography training, conducted in Uganda in June 2019. At the time, she was a recent graduate from the Bachelors’ degree program in Mass Communications and Journalism from Uganda Christian University in Kampala
I met Patience Natukunda in June 2019 when I embarked on my second photography training in Kampala, Uganda. Through our charity Cameras For Girls, we embark on teaching photography to females endeavouring to become journalists.
Samantha Byakutaga is a 25-year-old young woman who graduated from Uganda Christian University with a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications Degree and a major in journalism. She was working on a contract position at Success Africa as a media and communications fellow. She has recently gotten a full-time position with the same company, which is outstanding as the country has suffered a tremendous blow from COVID, with many of the citizens suffering from unemployment.
Sharon Countrygal Kyatusiimire was in the first training we held in Kampala in August 2018 and has collaborated with a few of the other students to design an organization called the She Voice. Their goal is to give females across Africa a voice to tell the stories otherwise not heard. Not only will it give her a voice in the heavily male-dominated journalism industry, but it will do the same for other girls as well.
With the work we are doing in Uganda, the hope is to change lives. By teaching photography and business skills to these young women, they can get paid work, earn an income, support themselves, their families, and their immediate communities.
d don’t know how to use one. We were fortunate to be working with Youth Arts Movement Uganda out of their facility in Kampala.
Joanita Nakatte is proof positive that our Cameras For Girls training works. Joanita attended our first Cameras For Girls 3-day workshop in Kampala in August 2018. She and 14 other young females gathered together in a rudimentary classroom to partake in our photography workshop, targeted towards females endeavouring to become journalists.
The worldwide pandemic did a number on all businesses and organizations around the world. However, where it made a devastating impact was for the countless non-profit organizations, such as Cameras For Girls, who tirelessly work to make a difference for those they support.
I am proud to state that the pandemic might have affected our students and our work with Cameras For Girls. Still, it did not stop us nor them from pursuing our goals, which is to help females in the developing world fight for gender equality and alleviate poverty for themselves and their families.
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.
Amina Mohamed, founded Cameras For Girls to change the lives of girls and women in Uganda, through the power of photography.