Give a Child a Camera
Norwich and District Photography Society supports the charity started in 2015 by Julian Claxton – Give a Child a Camera. Now called Fotograf the project is committed to providing inspiration to disadvantaged children and young people in Africa, enabling them to document their lives, owning their own stories without any expectation of praise or pity, providing a voice within their community and the wider world.
Members of the Society (and anyone else) can help us to support
Julian Claxton by donating old cameras that are no longer used.
Email: ndps.infocus@gmail.com for more information.
Julian fell in love with Africa in 2012, when he cycled more than 5,500 miles in 64 days from the UK to Rwanda. In 2014 Julian returned to Rwanda and Uganda, exploring the countries, meeting old friends, and documenting people he met on the journey.
When during this second trip he chanced upon a rural Ugandan school, the experience changed his life. It also led to 25 children being given the gift of photography and ultimately the following year to the birth of Give a Child a Camera.
Today Give a Child a Camera continues to empower young Ugandan children to tell a story of their life through photography. Providing an extracurricular activity, the project delivers on its mission statement to provide an uplifting, interesting, fun, and educational programme.
The Programme is also designed to build confidence and independence, the activities allow the young people to express their feelings, adding to their knowledge and providing the potential to move towards a career in photography or the arts.
Julian returns to East Africa every 12 months to run the project with young children. Working in and around Southwest Uganda, the project has been run in rural districts, utilising film cameras and also in 2018 in large towns using digital cameras, working with a group of young vulnerable children, who are living with HIV and are under the welfare of Katuna Marps, an NGO (Non Government Organisation) designed to help the most at risk.
Additionally, the project has also funded one teenager who is at risk, Violah – A young child who could not afford to continue education and left without any certificates. She has been enrolled in a two-year knitwear and tailoring course so she is able to gain valuable skills and importantly a certificate of education.
The project - Give a Child a Camera is run by Award-winning photographer Julian Claxton. Learn more about Julian by visiting his website LINK