Amina Mohamed
Lifestyle BloggerAmina Mohamed, founded Cameras For Girls to change the lives of girls and women in Uganda, through the power of photography.
I took to sharing our charitable work online through various channels and also wanted to speak with my donors through pre-arranged online coffee dates (thank you Zoom) about what was working and what was not. I wanted to ensure that the communication we were putting out was clear and reached the hearts of our donors. Authentically connecting with my donors has meant everything to me. The fact that these people who have their own daily struggles take the time to talk and share with me is incredible.
We conduct an initial 3-day workshop in Kampala, Uganda with 15 young women. After I return back to Canada, I then conduct the full curriculum online, using bi-weekly zoom calls, video training, one-on-one feedback, monthly assignments and communication and assistance through a private Whatsapp and Facebook group.
Empowering females is crucial in a world that stills struggles with gender inequality. Empowering our female students with photography and business skills enables her to fight for her rights for a job and be paid as equally as possible to her male counterpart. The pay gap amounts to a 17% difference, which tells us there is still much work to do in this area.
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.