Photojournalism in Sri Lanka
Donation protected
The young woman in this photograph is Hiruni Herat (with her parents Athula and Dilrukshika) and I am trying to tell her story. Hiruni is a fifteen year old high school student of Sri Lankan descent who lives in the Pittsburgh area and attends Seneca Valley High School. She began her own non-profit organization called the Close To My Heart Foundation about a year ago in order to raise money to do service projects in the village where her grandfather lives, Pugoda, Sri Lanka, and in other places. You can read more about this foundation at:
https://www.closetomyheartfoundation.org/
I met Hiruni through the Pittsburgh Buddhist Center, a Theravada Buddhist temple where I learned to meditate. When I heard about her project to collect used eyeglasses and organize a free eye clinic to the underserved people of Pugoda, as well as to raise funds to build a science lab for the village school (this will be the first such science lab in a village school in the entire country!) I knew that I had to help Hiruni tell her story to the world and, specifically to the people in the Pittsburgh area. To that end, I pitched photographing Hiruni on a trip back to Sri Lanka with her parents to the local reporting outlet Public Source, who agreed to publish the photos and story upon my return. You can find more information about Public Source at www.publicsource.org
There is only one problem: funding journalistic projects is expensive, especially when international travel is involved. For example, the outlet signed on to publish my story on Hiruni, Public Source, is only able to pay me a publication fee of $800, but the plane ticket alone to come to Sri Lanka cost me over $1500! I’ve paid for my airfare and travel expenses out of my own pocket, as well as a myriad of other costs related to this project (a bit of new equipment, research and pre-production work, as well as photographing Hiruni for numerous hours as she fund raised and organized her work to come here.) And let’s not forget that while I am away for almost a month to work on this story, as a self-employed freelancer, I will have no income coming in from the other client work that supports me during the rest of the year. So, basic, hard-fixed COL expenses like my mortgage, utilities, insurance and other monthly expenses also figure into the production costs of this project.
All funds contributed to this project will directly help me produce the final work (photographs and writing) that will help me tell the story of Hiruni and how her foundation is working to create a better world by underwriting my expenses for this trip. To me, it’s a story of optimism and hope for the future at time when, if you spend a lot of time watching the news, a lot of the stories we read fill us with hopelessness and pessimism.
Once the story is produced, it will help draw attention to Hiruni and her work for Close To My Heart; eventually, after publication by Public Source, I will make the images available to Close To My Heart free of charge to help her show the success of her work in Sri Lanka and help her secure more funding for future projects.
Additionally, since I have managed to get the whole way to Sri Lanka for Hiruni’s story, during my “free time” here, I am also trying to produce a second feature story related to food and how people eat here on the island. The bounty and self-sufficiency of this place feeds the entire population, as well as exporting tons of rice and produce, in the true spirit of “slow food” and locavore eating. Literally everything people consume here (tourists and residents alike) is fresh and local, coming from the sea and land just kilometers away from any given place. And the cuisine is delicious, a fascinating melange that reflects the island’s history and spice trading, with Indian, Portuguese, English, Dutch, Arabic, and Chinese influences. I’m trying to create a story, perhaps collaborate with a Sri Lankan food writer to produce a feature highlighting my images from this trip. Hopefully, a publication fee to license it will also help to offset the expenses incurred in coming here and your donation will aid in the production of that story.
Self-funding is the road that much journalism is taking these days; it puts the burden upon the individual writer and photographer to create the content entirely before seeking any revenue from it. Photography is expensive to produce because you have to go to a place in order to show it, and places like Sri Lanka are very far from Pittsburgh, PA. But I want to help everyone in Pittsburgh and in the U.S. see the difference that one young person like Hiruni, with her family, can make in the lives of those whose access to resources is less than our own.
Please help me show you these stories.
https://www.closetomyheartfoundation.org/
I met Hiruni through the Pittsburgh Buddhist Center, a Theravada Buddhist temple where I learned to meditate. When I heard about her project to collect used eyeglasses and organize a free eye clinic to the underserved people of Pugoda, as well as to raise funds to build a science lab for the village school (this will be the first such science lab in a village school in the entire country!) I knew that I had to help Hiruni tell her story to the world and, specifically to the people in the Pittsburgh area. To that end, I pitched photographing Hiruni on a trip back to Sri Lanka with her parents to the local reporting outlet Public Source, who agreed to publish the photos and story upon my return. You can find more information about Public Source at www.publicsource.org
There is only one problem: funding journalistic projects is expensive, especially when international travel is involved. For example, the outlet signed on to publish my story on Hiruni, Public Source, is only able to pay me a publication fee of $800, but the plane ticket alone to come to Sri Lanka cost me over $1500! I’ve paid for my airfare and travel expenses out of my own pocket, as well as a myriad of other costs related to this project (a bit of new equipment, research and pre-production work, as well as photographing Hiruni for numerous hours as she fund raised and organized her work to come here.) And let’s not forget that while I am away for almost a month to work on this story, as a self-employed freelancer, I will have no income coming in from the other client work that supports me during the rest of the year. So, basic, hard-fixed COL expenses like my mortgage, utilities, insurance and other monthly expenses also figure into the production costs of this project.
All funds contributed to this project will directly help me produce the final work (photographs and writing) that will help me tell the story of Hiruni and how her foundation is working to create a better world by underwriting my expenses for this trip. To me, it’s a story of optimism and hope for the future at time when, if you spend a lot of time watching the news, a lot of the stories we read fill us with hopelessness and pessimism.
Once the story is produced, it will help draw attention to Hiruni and her work for Close To My Heart; eventually, after publication by Public Source, I will make the images available to Close To My Heart free of charge to help her show the success of her work in Sri Lanka and help her secure more funding for future projects.
Additionally, since I have managed to get the whole way to Sri Lanka for Hiruni’s story, during my “free time” here, I am also trying to produce a second feature story related to food and how people eat here on the island. The bounty and self-sufficiency of this place feeds the entire population, as well as exporting tons of rice and produce, in the true spirit of “slow food” and locavore eating. Literally everything people consume here (tourists and residents alike) is fresh and local, coming from the sea and land just kilometers away from any given place. And the cuisine is delicious, a fascinating melange that reflects the island’s history and spice trading, with Indian, Portuguese, English, Dutch, Arabic, and Chinese influences. I’m trying to create a story, perhaps collaborate with a Sri Lankan food writer to produce a feature highlighting my images from this trip. Hopefully, a publication fee to license it will also help to offset the expenses incurred in coming here and your donation will aid in the production of that story.
Self-funding is the road that much journalism is taking these days; it puts the burden upon the individual writer and photographer to create the content entirely before seeking any revenue from it. Photography is expensive to produce because you have to go to a place in order to show it, and places like Sri Lanka are very far from Pittsburgh, PA. But I want to help everyone in Pittsburgh and in the U.S. see the difference that one young person like Hiruni, with her family, can make in the lives of those whose access to resources is less than our own.
Please help me show you these stories.
Organizer
Heather Mull
Organizer
Pittsburgh, PA