StillVision Abroad - Aquaid Lifeline Part1, Malawi

The final part of our month in Africa was a visit to the Aquaid Lifeline Fund's orphan village of Namisu near Blantyre in Malawi. The Cambridge based water company and associated charity are coming up for 10 years old and we were there to help them produce an anniversary brochure. Since starting out Aquaid have put over 3 million pounds to good use with their Malawian projects donating £732,000 last year alone! The orphan village is an amazing success and the work being done by the charity owner John Searle is really inspirational.

The number of projects has grown and grown and we managed to visit a good number of them. We also met a number of the people being helped either through schooling, day care, employment, college sponsorship or simply given access to medical treatment.

Hopefully the following images sum up the good work being done and portray the positive atmosphere that exists within the projects, the people that work for them and the children that they help:

THE SCHOOL AT NAMISU

















SCHOOL AT LASUNGWE

StillVision Abroad - Aquaid Lifeline Part2, Malawi

Aside from the huge amount of energy that goes into putting orphaned children through school, housing those without any family at all and feeding all of the day care children twice a day, there is a lot more that Aquaid funds and a lot more that goes on behind the scenes:

NAMISU ORPHA VILLAGE - views.





WOODWORK TRAINING - cabinets and structures for the building projects, schools and residential facilities.



TAILOR'S SHOP - providing uniforms for the school.



THE GARDENS - Maize and other crops feed the day care children (400 + in Namisu alone). The aim is to make the village self sufficient and provide an income.




FLATPACK WHEELCHAIRS - Self assembly wheelchairs that require only a simple, plastic garden chair!



ELEPHANTISIS - After consultation with the Doctor at Namisu the action decided on was for amputation of the arm.



VILLAGE PASTOR - Pastors hold village communities together and many are sponsored.



MIKE - being funded through university in nearby Zomba.

StillVision Abroad - The Wedding of Sizwile & Gathoni, Harare, Zimbabwe.

Another important part of our February trip to Africa was a wedding booking in the Zimbabwean capital of Harare. The happy couple were Sizwile who is Zimbabwean and Gathoni who is Kenyan. Although a little apprehensive about photographing in Zimbabwe (we didn't want to be seen as British media) the wedding was planned and executed to perfection and in all seriousness we could have been photographing in Cambridge! Zimbabwe is a country riddled with problems so we didn't expect to get away without encountering at least one. Our major problem was that the bride's parent's flight was cancelled by Air Zimbabwe on the night before the wedding spreading mild panic throughout the wedding party (the groom was so nervous he fell asleep). All was ok and the parents arrived within two hours of the wedding ceremony!

We thoroughly enjoyed the day and felt as much a part of the evening celebrations (and drinking) as anyone else so we got some rather interesting angles during the conga dancing towards the end of the night... enough said! Here are our favourite images:

StillVision Abroad - MaiKhanda Project, Malawi.

So... 4 countries, 1 month and 14 flights later and the StillVision studio has re-opened! There is just the small matter of the 38gb of photography to edit from our mammoth trip abroad! Expect plenty of BLOG entries over the next few weeks including photography of our wedding booking in Harare, Zimbabwe and our photo coverage for the Cambridge based charity Aquaid.

Most importantly and the primary reason for our trip to Africa was a photography commission to produce a comprehensive PR portfolio for The Health Foundation in London. Malawi has one of the world’s highest rates of maternal deaths during childbirth with recent figures showing that 984 mothers die for every 100,000 live births and that 27 babies die for every 1,000 births. The foundation has launched a £2.7 million, three year programme dedicated to improving the quality of healthcare for babies and mothers in Malawi.

The project that was photographed is called 'MaiKhanda' and we had the privilege of seeing everything that has been done to reduce maternal deaths. It was an eye opening experience but a very positive one (not to mention a hard working one too).

Below is a selection of favourite images processed in a more photojournalistic style to those produced for The Health Foundation.

PORTRAITS















KIDS









HOSPITALS