Conscious Choice: Have Cause, Will Travel

Students in class at Vatslaya. The children were all rescued from living in the streets
Photo by Linda Steen

Fact

Every day, more than 5,000 children die as a result of water-borne diseases. Pretty frightening stat, but this March, you can help. This year marks the 2nd Annual Tap Project, a campaign aimed at raising money for UNICEF to help provide safe drinking water access in more than 90 countries. During the week of March 16, you can elect to pay for your typically free (and clean) tap water at participating restaurants. For every dollar donated, a child will receive clean water for 40 days. One buck. Forty days. Now, those are definitely some sweeter statistics. In
Seattle, check out the hip and new Café Presse or cross the lake and head east to Café Juanita for incomparable Italian eats. For more restaurant partners and to read up on global water facts, visit tapproject.org.

March 2008 | On Our Radar

Have Cause, Will Travel

By Daysha Eaton

According to the images in your average luxury travel glossy, India is all brightly colored saris, ancient temples and dramatic landscapes. The India of newspaper headlines, on the other hand, paints a bleaker picture: one of begging, pollution and bombings. But what of the real faces, places and lives in between?

Enter Salaam Garage. Created by Seattle photographer, Amanda Koster, Salaam Garage, offers trips focused on photographing the work of NGOs (non-governmental organizations). It unites writers, photographers, documentarians and other media makers with a common goal: to share the untold stories of real people in the developing world. “I want to infiltrate everything with positive stories,” says Koster, who led the first SG trip to Jaipur, in northwest India, this past fall. “Through my career I’ve just seen enough negativity. We know it’s there, we know it’s happening — but who is surviving and what does that look like?”

Danielle Williams, a researcher for National Geographic Television, accompanied Koster on SG’s maiden voyage. “I’d had a lot of people tell me, ‘prepare yourself — you’re going to see a lot of suffering and you are going to feel guilty,’” Williams recounts. “[But it] was really the exact opposite.” Williams attributes this difference to Koster. “She took us to the less seen places and got us inside the culture to see the day-to-day lives of the real people there.”

Now, Williams volunteers with a nonprofit that helps street children living with HIV in India. Her photos, along with the rest of the group’s will be on display at Seattle galleries and coffeehouses through June, with a percentage of all photo sales going to Vatsalya, the NGO which served as the first photo shoot destination. A fresh group of media makers will return there next September, with another trip to Vietnam in March 2009. Koster says that seeing people like Danielle gain a new perspective on the world is why she leads the trips. “It’s like throwing a stone into a pond and just watching the ripples.”

For more information on Amanda Koster, her photography trips and a list of venues where you can see photos, check out salaamgarage.com.

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