I’m raising funds to continue and expand Dreaming Big With Cameras, a grassroots photography project I’ve founded and led alongside local partners for over fifteen years across Africa, India, Mexico, and now the Middle East. The workshops are designed for children whose lives have been shaped by war, displacement, poverty, and cultural erasure.

This isn’t your standard arts and crafts class. It is a rare pocket of freedom where children, many of whom have never held a camera, can laugh, create, and simply be children. Using a set of 10 point-and-shoot cameras, I run hands-on workshops that culminate in a public exhibition of the children’s own work. That moment of pride, of being seen, celebrated, and heard, is transformative. It is creative agency, not charity.

Truthfully, it is not about running a perfectly structured programme or producing incredible photographs. It is about giving children the chance to laugh, to dream, and to live as children should have been allowed to from the start.

I recently completed a workshop in Egypt with Palestinian children, many carrying trauma far beyond their years. I plan to continue this work with more Palestinian children, refugees, and displaced communities, creating safe creative spaces wherever the need is greatest. The vision is to build not a one off programme, but a sustained movement of storytelling powered by children themselves.

These workshops help children document the beauty of their cultures, the weight of their memories, and the resilience that keeps them going.

As UNESCO puts it:

“Art gives children the freedom to imagine, to express, to resist, and to belong. In conflict affected regions, creative participation can be a powerful tool for healing and rebuilding identity.”

To keep this going, I need your support. I often leave cameras behind for the children or their schools so they can continue creating long after the workshop ends. This means the camera sets need replenishing. They are not extravagant, usually around $350 to $500 each, but they are essential to sustaining the programme.

Every dollar raised goes directly to the children: cameras, workshop materials, meals and snacks, printing their photos for exhibition, and the occasional outing for a day of joy, such as a visit to a park or a small treat they rarely get to experience.

None of it goes towards my personal travel or admin costs.

You will be able to follow each workshop, as well as my wider fieldwork and reporting, via lizlohtaylor.substack.com and www.lltphotography.com.

If you donate or even simply share this campaign, you are helping a child reclaim their voice, their joy, and their right to dream beyond the borders forced upon them.

With utmost gratitude,

Liz