Heading to India

On the eve of our trip to India, Airika and I are completely ecstatic about our journey. I really can’t help but think back to our experiences 5 years ago when we went to Sri Lanka to do relief work right after the tsunami. We spent most of that trip traveling from village to village, delivering fresh water, listening to people’s stories, taking photos, and doing what we could to help. We saw a lot of pain and devastation that had been caused by the tsunami, but we saw just as much that had been caused by decades of civil war in the region. That trip really changed our perspective on the world, and inspired within us a passion to do what we can to help those in need. Since we are not experts in water treatment, medical care, engineering or construction, we decided that we could use photography as a way to let their stories be heard.

Here are just a few of the images we took 5 years ago in Sri Lanka. This is where it all started for us.

…which brings us back to our upcoming trip to India. For part of our trip, we will be visiting our dear friend Dr. B.J. Prashantham and witnessing (and hopefully capturing) some of the work that he and his colleagues at the Christian Counseling Center of India have been doing. The center is dedicated to helping people from developing countries who have been traumatized by natural disasters or civil war, get the counseling and support they need to recover mentally and emotionally from what they have been through. It’s an amazing organization that is doing what it can to reach out and help in a way that is almost always overlooked. We are so excited to witness their work first hand!