The Story

The most frightening time in an orphan’s life is when they reach between the ages of 15 and 18 and are forced to enter the “real world”, leaving behind the only home they have ever known.  We realize the value of education especially at this most difficult milestone.
The goal of our initiative is to provide orphans with the opportunity for higher education, which gives these young adults the tools to help shape their own futures. To accomplish this mission, we have created Shutters4Scholars, a system to connect orphans with sponsors abroad, while also providing the children a learning opportunity to express themselves through art.
This fall, we implemented our pilot program to test the waters for our concept, Shutters 4 Scholars.  We sent disposable cameras to nine children at the Holy Family Orphanage in the Ternopil Region of Ukraine.  The cameras were sent with a description of our team’s goals and objectives for the program, as well as picture-by-picture instructions on how to use them. 
The young photographers captured images that reflected various aspects of their lives, whether it was day to day activities or simply little things that fascinated them.  After one week, we had the pictures developed and digitally sent to us, and we have consequently started to include them in the gallery on our web application. 
The director of the orphanage related back to us the excitement with which these children embraced the concept of Shutters 4 Scholars, thereby reinforcing our team’s desire to continue with the project. 
Each young photographer will have his/her own profile page with albums of the photos he/she took and a short biography telling the child’s unique story.  Our hope is that the pictures taken by the young scholars will tell their stories and touch your hearts. Through these photos the children are able to express themselves, overcoming any language, cultural, economic or geographic barriers. 
Shutter4Scholars gives the children a voice through the use of photography, sharing their lives via a web application with those who are willing and able to give them a chance to receive an education and, with that, the hope of a brighter tomorrow.
We look forward to the impact that we can make in the long term, by using the money raised in order to help these children go on to higher education, and sending digital cameras so that the young photographers can truly enhance their photography skills.  Having successfully run a pilot program, our team has immense faith in the impact that we can make through the Shutters4Scholars program.