100 cameras is a great new charitable project that aims to empower children in problematic communities around the world by teaching them photography. They then provide these groups with 100 donated cameras to take photos of their daily lives. 100camera then sells the childrens' prints in special exhibitions and online. All the proceeds from those sales go back to these children. What a brilliant, brillant idea!!

Please support 100cameras!

http://www.100cameras.org/

This is what they say on their webpage:

We believe that children have the right to live free from oppression, violence and poverty. However, this is not the reality in many communities worldwide. According to UNICEF, 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world), 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services, and 25,000 die each day due to poverty.

Even though this global problem will not be solved overnight or even in our lifetime, 100cameras is committed to reducing the oppression, decreasing the violence and breaking the cycles of poverty in the communities to which we are committed.

Through photography, 100cameras provides children with a creative platform to share their lives from their own perspective.

100cameras begins by identifying underserved communities locally and abroad that are home to orphans, at-risk children, children without rights and children who lack access to basic healthcare or education. After identifying these communities, 100cameras partners with organizations that are already providing sustainable solutions within their targeted area.  

The 100cameras staff then takes donated cameras to the project location in order to implement a photography course among the children.  The curriculum provides each child with a camera and includes a series of introductory lessons about basic camera fundamentals with a specific emphasis on documentation. Both the course and the resources give children the opportunity to express the realities of their every day through images. This partnership is empowering to both the children and communities involved. 

100cameras teaches a child how to capture and tell their story. This encourages a better self view, resulting in higher levels of confidence and ownership in their identity. Through their own photography, the children become self-advocators. Their pictures are the voices that speak awareness.

100cameras is committed to share their perspective with a global community. Upon completion of a project, 100cameras has the unique position to carry these photographs across borders to bridge communities together. Specifically, this is accomplished through online print sales, web campaigns and a series of photo exhibition events. When someone purchases one of the children's photos, 100percent of that money is given back to the partner organization in that child's community. 

100cameras has completed two projects thus far (Sudan and NYC) and plans to launch a third one in June 2011.