Smokey Mountain trip in Straits Times: Causes
A while ago, I posted up short write up of the trip made by Sean Lau, my photographer good friend to Smokey Mountain in Manila, the Philippines.
Yesterday, the Straits Times feature his cause in the section known as “home.causes” on Page B11, 29 August 2009.
USING PHOTOS TO HELP MANILA SLUM DWELLERS
Lensman posts snaps of Smokey Mountain on website and raises $5k
By Wee Jun Kai
PROFESSIONAL baby photographer Sean Lau is more accustomed to having happy young couples and their precious bundles of joy in front of his camera.
So the 27-year-old was little prepared for the horrific scenes of hardship he witnessed when he visited the slums of Smokey mountain in Manila on a photography trip
It was his way of getting into missionary work: His photographs, posted on his website at www.seanlau.com, have so far raised $5,716 for The Philippines Community Fund (PCF), a British-based charity that provides free medical treatment, food and education to those living on SMokey Mountain.
Mr Lau was “at a loss for words” when he saw the living conditions in the slums there last October.
Smokey Mountain is a 25ha dumpsite, home to about 20,000 Filipinos who scavenge through the enormous scrap heap for recyclable items to sell. It is notorious as a symbol of poverty in the Philippines, but the slum dwellers have resisted efforts by the government and other groups to improve the living conditions there.
Huts are built from salvaged material, and the roads, from mud and decomposing trash. The many children there wander the streets, aimless and hungry, many too young to help their parents scavenge among the garbage.
Mr Lau, inspired to do his bit by a church pastor who had carried out missionary work overseas, said: “Photography is powerful and wonderful in many ways. It is my way of communication with the world, relating to them places and people that they will probably never go to or meet in their lifetimes.
“Compared with reading about it in the newspaper, being down there in person made me feel I was involved. I could not ignore the situation with a clear conscience.”
His website now has a short journal of his trip alongside the photographs he tool. Since APril 1, the website has doubled as a fund-raising platform for the PCF, representatives of which were Mr Lau’s guides during his trip there.
He counts getting to know the PCF representatives as the most rewarding part of his visit: “I saw how a small group of people could make such huge personal sacrifices to bring love and hope to a community that was discarded and unwanted by many.”
Donations can be made via the PCF website, for which there is a link on Mr Lau’s site. The PCF website address is www.p-c-f.org
To see his journal on this trip, just visit here.
