Cameras For Girls Achieves Charity Status
In the everyday running of a non-profit, you sometimes feel that the goal you set out to accomplish is unachievable, and you feel like giving up, but then something extraordinary happens! Your organization, which you worked so hard to maintain and grow, achieves charity status.
What Achieving Charity Status Does For a Small Organization?
When I set out to change the lives of females in my home country, Uganda, using the power of photography, I never envisioned that we would be here three years later, after many setbacks. Being a solo founder and running this day-in and day-out gets lonely and sometimes overwhelming. But knowing the lives, I can impact in the developing world makes me work harder each day.
What does it mean for a small organization to hit official status? Mainly that we can now issue tax receipts for donations.
Donations help us:
To purchase cameras for our programming - each female we teach gets a camera to keep and year-long photography and business skills training to empower her to find paid work. So far, we have trained 32 females, between the ages of 19-29 in Uganda, and 12 now have full-time paid jobs, either as full-time or freelance journalists/photojournalists. One works as a broadcaster for a central TV station, and another is starting her organization called The She Voice to magnify female voices in Uganda.
To purchase a computer for the editing lab, we set up in each country so that the students can learn to edit.
To support our students financially during this difficult time under COVID. Uganda has been hard hit, and we have been helping our students with funds to purchase food, pay for rent and subsidize what they cannot get from their local governments.
100% of the funds raised and cameras collected go towards our charitable efforts in Africa.
We started in Uganda in 2018. We are moving forward with our programming in other African countries. In October (online for now), we will be teaching females in South Africa through our partnership with Khwela Womxn, who are endeavouring to become tour guides. The photography training will help them become better storytellers, lead their own photo tours and compete in a very male-dominated space.
Learn more at https://www.camerasforgirls.org
If you are looking to get involved, we are always looking for volunteers.
If you care to donate used or new camera equipment, kindly reach out to us at amina@camerasforgirls.org.
In the everyday running of a non-profit, you sometimes feel that the goal you set out to accomplish is unachievable, and you feel like giving up, but then something extraordinary happens! Your organization, which you worked so hard to maintain and grow, achieves charity status.
If you care to donate used or new camera equipment, kindly reach out to us at amina@camerasforgirls.org.
If you wish to donate to our charity, you can find us on Canada Helps or Go Fund Me. We can now issue tax receipts :)
