On Assignment - Photographing Malaria Prevention for WHO, Stung Treng, Cambodia
It’s always a pleasure to get of Phnom Penh on assignment and this job was no exception. The brief was to produce a series of 25 photos for the World Health Organization about Sophal for their WHO’s Who series to commemorate their 75th anniversary of providing health for all.
The series was to highlight some of vital work done by some of the key healtcare workers around the world.
Sophal works in malaria prevention and has dedicated himself to preventing malaria in the remote parts of Stung Treng, which are high risk areas.
Sophal was a great choice for the photography series and he is dedicated to his work and he’s very respected within the communities he works in. He led a fundraising campaign when one of his team lost their house through fire. On another occasion, he donated blood to one of his community health workers’ wives after being alerted to the need in the middle of the night.
He’s also studying for a masters in public health in his spare time.
It was a busy day photographing Sophal. We arrived at Siem Pang Health Center early in the morning where Sophal met with the local health centre workers, checked malaria records and did a stock take of the preventative medicine before travelling into the community.
Working in remote villages, we had to take a ferry an ox and cart and small boat to reach the most remote village.
When we got to the community, Sophal checked the records and spoke to his team of community health workers.
From there, his team went into the community to provide training to the village and to check on people who had recently returned from the forest to give them preventative medicine.
The team managed to get all of this done before a storm blew in and the heavens opened.
You can see other examples of my NGO photography for the World Health Organization here and here.
In the Field Filming a Video Case Study About Leprosy Elimination in Cambodia for WHO
It was an honour to be contacted by the World Health Organization Western Pacific Office to collaborate with them on another 3-minute case study about the valuable work the WHO does in Cambodia.
I enjoy working on these NGO video projects as they focus on the individual, who often has a remarkable and moving story, while showing the bigger picture of the work that is being done.
This video follows Visal who works as a consultant for National Center for Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control.
He works closely with communities to eliminate leprosy.
‘We work with health centre staff, village chiefs and a team of volunteers’, he says. ‘The training we provide is an essential part of the process.’
The education they provide to communities is essential.
‘An important part of what we do is educating people in the community to raise awareness and to make sure they understand about leprosy prevention’, says Visal.
He has leveraged social media to extend the programme’s reach, ‘As most leprosy patients use Facebook, I use Messenger to share information with them’.
As well as working to eliminate leprosy he also supports patients, ‘We trained them to raise chickens. This has helped them to live independently’.
I’m confident that if people like Visal continue the good work they do, Cambodia will achieve it’s goal of eliminating the disease.
Below is the shorter edit of the video I made for social media.
Working as an NGO Photographer Covering Leprosy Elimination for WHO in Cambodia
After a successful collaboration with WHO last year, it was great to be asked to work as a documentary photographer to produce another photo essay as part of their People of the Western Pacific Series.
The brief was to produce 25 photos to tell the story of Visal and the invaluable work that he does in eliminating leprosy from Cambodia.
Visal works for the National Center for Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control, under the Ministry of Health, and has been instrumental in implementing the National Programme for Leprosy Elimination.
Visal is dedicated and passionate about his work and even faced discrimination from his own family. They asked him not to visit his home town before he educated them about how easily treatable the disease is.
I spent a day taking photos of Visal as he worked in the community.
I photographed Visal conducting a training session, speaking to the local health authorities to explain their activities and conducting screening in the community.
At the end of the day, we visited a couple who both had leprosy and suffered disabilities as a result.
Visal’s work has helped to reduce the stigma within their community and he’s helped them to establish a chicken husbandry business that helps them to be financially independent.
Visal has also been instrumental in establishing networks using social media to help identify new cases. This has been very effective, particularly when working with people from remote areas, which is where most new cases are detected.
Leprosy is easily treatable and can be eliminated from Cambodia.
Due to the hard work of people like Visal, there are very few new leprosy cases in Cambodia and by educating people, their work has helped to reduce the stigma.
I wish them luck in achieving their goal.
You can see more of my photography work for WHO here. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any NGO photography projects you would like to discuss.
On Assignment for WHO - Directing 4 Videos About their Social Prescribing Campaign
I was commissioned by the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office to direct 4 videos about their Social Prescribing for Healthy Aging programme in Cambodia to form part of their training toolkit. The toolkit provides implementing partners with an overview of the best practices of how implement social prescribing at the community level.
The Social Prescribing for Healthy Aging programme is a way for healthcare workers to connect people to a range of non-clinical services in the community and to help the elderly not feel anxiety, loneliness or depression.
The toolkit is designed for policy makers and community health centres to help them run effective social prescribing schemes.
The brief was to make 4 videos to highlight the key aspects of successfully implementing social prescribing schemes.
The first video (above) features Dr Kao Sovandara, a lecturer at The Royal University of Phnom Penh and part of the lead team implementing social prescribing in Cambodia. He gives an overview of the programme, the training they provide and how that works at a grassroots level.
The second video features Yem Sameoun, who is a commune councillor responsible for running the scheme in her community. She talks about the training she receives, the work she does in the community and the positive outcomes.
The third video features Nget Krin, an elderly community member. She talks about the situation she faces, the support she receives and how that makes her feel.
The fourth video features Dr Khan Sareth, a lecturer at The Royal University of Phnom Penh and part of the lead team implementing social prescribing in Cambodia. He gives an overview of what they’ve achieved and reflects on how the scheme can be improved in the future.
While the project is intrinsically nebulous in nature, I hope it can have an impact in Cambodia, regionally and in the rest of the world. As the world’s population is aging, it’s increasingly important to make sure everyone feels included within their communities.
Working as a Lighting Camera Operator on a Corporate Shoot for Advertainment Media
Jordan, the head of production for Advertainment Media, got in touch with me through my website about working as a lighting camera operator and recording sound for a series of corporate interviews they wanted to shoot for FFNews Show, which they produce.
It was great working with a production company with a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve. The process was straightforward: I was provided with a sample video and we discussed the technical requirements of the shoot and the equipment needed.
Taylor, the producer, did a great job of providing call sheets and securing the locations, which allowed my team to fully focus on our job.
We filmed the interviews at some of the leading financial institutions in Cambodia. The scheduling gave us time to arrive in advance to prepare the locations and set up lighting, cameras and sound before the talent arrived.
We went with a 3 camera set up (1x Sony a7siii and 2x Sony a7ivs), to give us a wide and a close up of both Douglas, the presenter. and the interviewee, 2 x Aputure LS 300D II lights and a radio mic each, with a backup in case there were any interviews with 2 people at the same time.
Below are a few behind the scenes photos Taylor kindly took:
Below are 2 more episodes Advertainment Media edited from the shoot. They were happy with the final results. It’s always good to see the final product when someone else has done a good job with the edit.
You can see more examples of my work as a lighting camera operator here.