Every 15 seconds someone dies
of a waterborne illness.
1.1 billion people lack access
to clean drinking water.
Children under the age of 5 account for almost 90% of deaths caused by waterborne disease.
These were very sobering statements to us when we read them for the first time. When we began to dwell and realize these facts within our core. The truth is by the time you’ve finished reading these first few sentences, another life has been lost due to poor, unsafe water conditions. And the staggering number of these deaths being children under the age of 5 destroyed our hearts. Especially since we have two young boys.
Since the inception of Session Nine, Jessica and I have been praying and searching for an opportunity to serve others with more than just art and images. And in the summer of 2010 we met a fellow photographer named Jim Davis-Hicks, who is also the founder of the Thirst Relief organization. Jim was helping lead a photography related workshop, but he spoke a bit into his heart for Thirst Relief and his call to help people who didn’t have access to clean water. His passion and the idea of Thirst Relief stuck with us and as we began to rework our vision and strategy for 2011, we just knew that we had a strong desire to partner with and support the projects that the Thirst Relief team are working on.
The philosophy behind Thirst Relief is incredibly simple. They focus on three main universal projects where as little as $5 can give someone clean water for life:
- Building bore hole wells where there are ground water sources
- Building concrete bio-sand filters to filter contaminated water to clean and drinkable
- WASH programs to build filters and help educate the communities on hygiene and sanitation
These projects are happening now, as you read this, across the world. In places like earthquake ravaged Haiti. India. Cameroon. Uganda. Kenya. Brazil. Thirst Relief just needs people like you and I to step outside of our spheres and realize that we just may be crazy enough to change the world for the better.
When we realized how many “5 dollars” we could offer simply by giving a portion of every shoot that we book and complete, Jessica and I felt compelled to be faithful to the tug at our hearts and do just that. We knew that we wanted to support the work that Thirst Relief is doing, but in the same breath we thought, ” how can we involve the people that we meet along the way, the people that we photograph in this project?”
That question was answered with a small, creative idea to place a marker inside one picture of every session that we photograph. One symbol. One reminder that YOU as a client, through the simple act of a photo shoot, had a great impact in the rescue of someone who needed clean water to have hope.
Inside one of the images of every shoot, every session, and every wedding, you will find an orange marker of some kind. It could be as subtle as an orange shoelace to something as large as a vibrant orange couch. This is simply an artistic reminder, a wink if you will, to the fact that by taking pictures together you have changed someone’s life for the better. The orange markers are not the focus, but a tangible way to see your support.
Changing lives is the hope and passion for The ORNG Project.
Every session, every shoot, even every wedding that we photograph will support Thirst Relief projects with 10% of the proceeds of the booking. Jessica and I hope that you will join together with us in this project. That you will choose to consider yourself crazy enough to think that you could help change the world. The best part?? You can follow along with the progress of The ORNG Project by clicking here.
Let’s create some magic together through pictures and help instill hope where hope has become distant and unreachable.
A Franciscan Blessing-
May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships,
so that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war,
so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world,
so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
