{"id":28483,"date":"2016-12-29T07:00:27","date_gmt":"2016-12-29T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adorama.com\/alc\/?p=28483"},"modified":"2016-12-22T09:45:20","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T14:45:20","slug":"photographer-making-difference-tamara-lackey-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adorama.com\/alc\/photographer-making-difference-tamara-lackey-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographer Making a Difference: Tamara Lackey in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

In February, my husband,<\/span> Steve,<\/span> and I flew from Dubai<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>to Ethiopia. Almost immediately upon landing in Africa, we learned of the urgent need for a\u00a0kitchen\u00a0in the new feeding center in Korah that Beautiful Together<\/a>\u00a0helps to support through\u00a0our partner organization,<\/span> Life To Live for Korah, a grassroots feeding program in the village.<\/p>\n

More specifics from our project page here:<\/p>\n

\u201cKorah is\u00a0one of the poorest communities in the world, built <\/em>around a large trash dump that people have used\u00a0for years to find food and to scrap plastics for money. Originally a small community for lepers, Korah\u00a0has now grown to over\u00a0120,000 people, all within a few miles\u2019 radius.<\/em><\/p>\n

One month ago, the trash dump was moved away from Korah. This was for a good reason, so new government programs could\u00a0create energy from the trash. But the removal of the trash dump has been absolutely devastating for the people of Korah, who had depended\u00a0on the mountains of trash to mine\u00a0for scraps and food.<\/em><\/p>\n

Suddenly children and families, who were barely getting by, now have no possible way to generate monies needed to buy the even the smallest portions of food and clean water.\u00a0And those children without families, those who\u00a0have relied on relatives and villagers, are now the most vulnerable of all.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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We immediately set up the\u00a0Build an Orphan Feeding Kitchen<\/a>\u00a0project, and the response was overwhelmingly amazing. In just a few days,<\/span> we were at 200% of our goal, and that number kept climbing! That\u00a0enabled us to immediately shop for appliances and fixtures and lock down additional needed items while we were still on the ground in Africa.<\/p>\n

And, side note, I also learned that you sometimes have to go to over a dozen stores to find a water filter that you can purchase,<\/span> since nearly all of them are just for display only. (Who knew?!)<\/p>\n

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We also had the opportunity to visit more homes throughout Korah and film some of the conversations we had with people throughout the village. In the video below, I was able to chat with a young widow with two small children in her home. She lives in one of the many \u201cplastic houses,\u201d homes where the walls are simple sheets of plastic, or coverings found from industrial wrappings (like a very large bag of rice).<\/p>\n

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Beautiful Together: Visiting a "plastic" home in Korah, Ethiopia<\/div><\/div>
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