Fundraising for refugee photography project

Hi! I’m Sydney, and I’m currently volunteering with a refugee services organization (Lifting Hands International) in Serres, Greece. LHI provides programming that is available for all 850 refugees in the two camps in this city. The refugees in these camps are about 50% Yazidi (a small ethnic group from Iraq), 25% Afghani, 10% Irani, and the last 15% come from about 10 different countries including Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and Syria. LHI provides a Female Friendly Space, a Child Friendly Space, and an Education program with English and German language lessons. However, as the Arts & Recreation program got shut down (due to COVID), there’s a lack of programming for teens and young adults- and that’s why I’m planning a photography workshop aimed at this demographic. Most of these teens/young adults have been here for years, and they love anything arts/crafts related, so I’m super excited to do this project with them! They currently tend to spend the days in the children’s program- but as all of our activities have to cater to children as young as 2, it can be a bit difficult for them.

The project will be themed “A Day in the Life”, and participants will be able to go as literal or fantastical as they desire. There will be 4 classes over the course of 2 weeks, and we’ll go over some technical photography things like framing and lighting, planning out the story, actually doing the photos and then putting them into the scrapbooks. I’m planning on buying 15 disposable cameras (at €18 each), coming to $300, and then paying to develop the pictures and buy scrapbooks for each participants, as well as markers/tapes/stickers to decorate their books at the end. Due to privacy rules and the possibility of minors participating, I may not be able to post anything publicly at the end, but the important thing is that the participants will have a tangible book for themselves at the end of the workshop.

Thank you for your support!