We have been out in Segou, a rural town about three and a half hours from Bamako for the last two days shooting the meetings and activities of women involved in Freedom From Hunger’s savings programs. My apologies for not being able to post earlier than this, but the small rural town of Segou lacks sufficient Internet connections make a blog post.
Below is a video shot using my iPhone, during the drive to work this morning (don’t get too excited it’s a pretty bad video) but at least you can see a bit of the country.
The voice you’re hearing in the video, is Tyler, an intern working for FFH. He’s going to be helping FFH with some social marketing.
Now that the group is back in Bamako I am able to make some short posts, however it’s already 1:30 AM and I still have lots of editing to do so I am going to make this post another short one and just include a few images from the last days of work.
Also, check out this video, shot with my Nikon D3s in a small local market.
Mali has an ancient and proud cultural history, it also has historical significance to Freedom from Hunger. FFH’s very first efforts to implement its Credit with Education program were launched in Mali in 1989. Over time, Credit with Education was refined and transformed into a cost-effective partnership methodology that now serves women in five West African countries as well as nations in other parts of the world.
Today in Mali, Freedom from Hunger and its two credit union partners, Nyèsigiso and Kondo Jigima, serve two large, rural regions of the country. For our Malian partners, the greatest challenge has been to extend the reach of Credit with Education across vast distances to serve women living in communities that are as isolated as they are impoverished.
To date, Credit with Education programs in Mali have loaned over US $20 million to women in rural areas. Our new partner, Kondo Jigima, is expanding into even more remote regions, reaching from the city of Mopti toward the fabled Timbuktu. As in other countries, the Malian Credit with Education members–no matter how poor–are respected as entrepreneurs.
Loan repayment in Mali is virtually 100% and the interest on these loans supports the ongoing operational costs, helping the program to achieve sustainability. At weekly repayment meetings, field agents engage the women in “learning sessions” to introduce new ideas and recommended practices on the topics of health, nutrition, family planning and business management. Most of the women participating in these programs can neither read nor write, so these learning sessions are frequently the only education they have ever received.
Beautiful work, Karl. Sounds like FFH is doing a wonderful, and much needed work there in Mali. Thanks for sharing!
Hi,
Great, great photographs. I just love your usage of the shallow DOF.
Your videos…. not so much. You could really benefit from a simple steadycam.
Cheers!
Rodrigo
Love the videos my friend! Remember our talk about the multimidia world of the internet. The quality of the Nikon video is great and I like the way it ends, could be a photo right there, as a matter of fact there could be many photo opportunities just in that short walk.
Great job!
Hey Karl,
Keep up the good work.
Really enjoyed the video that you’ve shot with the Nikon D3S.
It seems that you’re switch from Canon to Nikon was the right choice!!
Greetings,
Danny
Hi Tod Rodrigo and Celso. Thanks for the comments! I’ll check into a simple steadicam. I’m new at video and as I use it more I need to find ways to improve the quality. I’m finding out that it’s quite difficult to move and hold the camera steady! Celso, you’re right, I could have spent an hour just at that small market…the photo ops were great!
Love this post so much. Love the stills, but the videos made my heart race. I think anyone who’s bumped along a dusty African road and seen life stretched out as traffic passed by… well it doesn’t require professional footage to make that come rushing back. Thanks!
Karl, you might want to check out this:
http://www.tiffen.com/handheldmerlin.html
I saw one of these back in March in Vegas at the WPPI trade show. I am not a videographer, but it looks like a pretty sweet little piece of equipment. It’s also light and fairly compact as well, and I know that for you and for the work you do, that those are big selling points! 🙂
Karl, you might want to check out this piece of gear:
http://www.tiffen.com/handheldmerlin.html
I saw this at the WPPI trade show in Vegas back in March. and was really impressed. Although I’m not a videographer, I was really impressed with it, as it’s light and fairly compact. And for you and your work, those are big selling points, I’m sure. 🙂
Hi Karl,
I’ll second Tod’s recommendation of the Merlin. One of our videographers uses it and gets great results. As a stand-alone piece in a videographer’s kit, it won’t be enough for every situation, but for a photojournalist that has to travel \light\, it’s a smart choice.