PhotoPhilanthropy - Constantino Schillebeeckx + La Isla Foundation
Our friend and freelance photographer, Constantino Schillebeeckx, has published and submitted his photographic work of La Isla and Chronic Kidney Disease to PhotoPhilanthropy Activist Awards.
You can see his Nicaragua images on his website here - http://www.photocs.net/travel/nicaragua/
He states:
La Isla Foundation is a 501(c) 3 organization created in 2008 to help establish the causes of the Nicaraguan chronic kidney disease (CKD) epidemic among sugar cane workers and their communities. It seeks to facilitate treatment, educate workers on CKD, and to support their families while simultaneously educating northern consumers about where many of their food products come from and the costs of the industrial practices that bring them to market.
I began this photojournalism project to represent people in Nicaragua with CKD. I wanted to put a human face to the epidemic as well as to show the impact CKD is having. I chose this organization because I speak fluent Spanish. Getting in touch and interacting with the people is crucial for my own understanding of the topic so I can relate to those I’m photographing. Furthermore, La Isla Foundation is a small organization, so I knew that I would have the creative freedom to work as I saw best instead of getting caught up in a bureaucracy.
The organization now has an entire library full of professional-grade and media-ready images which is uses on their website, sends to public media and uses in presentations around the world to help educate.
- Constantino Schillebeeckx, Photo CS, L.L.C.
