Peter's pro photo news & views

I’ve been in the Rwandan capital of Kigali for a few days now, working on photographs for a new fund-raising campaign for Operation Smile. This is the first ever mission in this tiny East African country, so it’s a landmark occasion for the organisation, as well as a whole new world of experience for me, since this is my first visit to the African continent.

And what a way to begin! Flying in over Kenya and spotting Mt Kilimanjaro, the Masai Mara AND Lake Victoria from the plane, all within an hour.

Kigali itself is a very pleasant city wrapped around lush green hills and valleys. I read a lot before coming here about the genocide of the past few decades, especially the most well-known instance in 1994. So I can’t help picturing those scenes as I cruise through the city’s green and leafy suburban streets on the back of a motorbike taxi. But the early impression is of a country that has worked hard to move on from the bad old days and is enjoying a new era of prosperity and stability, partly thanks to the huge amounts of assistance poured in here since the mid-90s (i.e. guilt money from those countries that failed Rwanda tragically in 1994). But mostly due to the policies and efforts of the rather enlightened government under President Paul Kagame (check him out here on Facebook).

The mission kicked off on Saturday morning at the main university hospital downtown. Over 400 patients and their families were gathered together from all over the country, and bussed in courtesy of UNICEF. They’ve been housed in dormitories courtesy of the Red Cross, and are being tended to by volunteers from a range of NGOs including the US Peace Corps. So it’s a big and complicated operation.

For my part, I’m working alongside a video team who are filming a promotional documentary, following several of the children through the mission and surgical processes. Once the video campaign is ready for release, a print campaign will run in parallel. And since thankfully video doesn’t yield enough pixels for hi-resolution printing, photographers are still needed to capture images that match the video story. So video hasn’t killed the photography star yet!

There’s so much to explain and reveal about things here, and about working on this kind of project. But I’m exhausted and want to just share some photos and take a break. Be sure to contact me or take a look at www.operationsmile.org if you have any questions.

Operation Smile in Rwanda 2010 - Images by Peter Stuckings