Woohoo! We’re really excited to travel with AYUDA this summer to Ecuador and the Dominican Republic. We’ll be photographing AYUDA’s unique work educating kids with type 1 diabetes in these countries. Our goal is to share their experience living with diabetes in Latin America. And we need your help!
Natalie - the ‘N’ in C+N - started as a volunteer with AYUDA in 2004, and has since traveled with them to Mexico, Belize, and Ecuador. During these trips, she realized she was lucky - although she has diabetes like the kids she worked with, she was born in a country where supplies and education were not limited resources.
It was during these trips that she first became interested in photography. Lugging her dad’s old Canon AE-1, and a few rolls of film, she tried to capture some of her experiences. That’s when she began thinking about telling the story of these kids through photography.
Fast forward to this summer: C+N, and a bunch of awesome volunteers from all over, have each pledged to raise around $6,000, which is equivalent to 18 months of diabetes-related care for one child in Ecuador. A month of $3.50 cappuccinos could give TEN kids a day of medical care. That’s huge! Because these kids have type 1 diabetes, they are insulin-dependent for the rest of their lives. Not being able to afford things like insulin, test strips, glucose monitors, and doctor visits, is a big reason why diabetes still shortens life expectancy in these countries.
Want to donate? Visit our fundraising page here - obviously, anything helps. If you find our project interesting, feel free to forward this along to your friends and family, or send us a note.
We’ll be posting pictures from the road, but here are a few of Natalie’s images from her previous trips - all shot on film. For more info about AYUDA, check out their site: ayudainc.net
