Cameras for Girls
The not-for-profit program uses Canon G-series cameras to teach aspiring female journalists in Africa photography skills, empowering them to create careers of their own.
Photos, © Amina Mohamed Photography and Moxie Photography
Amina Mohamed was born in England but spent the first three years of her life in Uganda. In 1972, Idi Amin, the then Ugandan president, ordered the expulsion of the Indian minority from the country. Mohamed, her parents and older sister came to Canada as refugees in November 1972.
She returned to Uganda for the first time in 2007. She wanted to see her roots. At the time, she was working in film and television and had the opportunity to shoot a documentary. After 10 days, she left shook by the poverty and incensed by the plight of women.
“We grow up in this country where anything you want to be you can be, regardless of your gender, race or anything,” she says. “There, girls are told they don’t matter.” They’re married shortly after they hit puberty, mothers by the time they’re in their 20s. “Their dreams for an education are not always realized because they’re born girls. I couldn’t reconcile it.”
At the time, she didn’t know how to channel her anger into action. Fast-forward 10 years, Mohamed, now running a photo tourism company, was ready to put her love of photography – and her expertise – to good. A conversation with a Ugandan friend, a male journalist earning steady pay, gave her an idea. Girls are told they have to own a camera, even if they go to school, to get a journalism job. The rub: university is completely theoretical, no practical. “They may have touched a camera once or twice, yet when they graduate, they have to be fully equipped to get a job,” says Mohamed. “We saw where we could make a difference.”
In 2018, she launched the not-for-profit Cameras for Girls, which teaches photography and entrepreneurial skills to females in Africa endeavouring to become journalists. Fifteen girls took part. Two weeks after the training sessions, Mohamed heard from one of the students. Joanita worked as a journalist, but not having a camera and photos to accompany her articles, she hadn’t been getting paid for six months. Now that she owned a camera, she got paid. When the roof blew off her family home during a storm, she repaired it. “She surprised herself and bought her own DSLR,” says Mohamed. “She’s working for a media house that she loves and the successes keep coming.”
Having used mini point-and-shoot cameras that first year, Cameras for Girls levelled up their gear to the Canon G-series of premium compact cameras. “We chose the Canon camera because it’s amazing for beginners to learn on, photography wise,” says Mohamed. “It has great video capacity so they can also get in the field. But it’s robust enough and small enough to put in their purse so it won’t get stolen.”
Mohamed trained another 18 girls in 2019. When COVID hit in 2020 and travel wasn’t possible, she built an online portal to house training videos, tutorials, downloadable tip sheets, and interviews with journalists and female photographers.
Cameras for Girls is now a four-phase training program. Phase 1 is a four-day workshop in the country. For the first three days, Mohamed and her team teach the girls how to use their cameras in manual. They learn about aperture, shutter and settings. They learn how to use their camera as a tool to tell stories. The fourth day is spent in the field.
“We work with a local NGO in the country who has the same themes of female empowerment, gender equality and education as a right,” says Mohamed. The students meet the NGO staff as well as the beneficiaries of their work. They then have three weeks to write a 500-word article with 10 to 20 edited photos. “They submit it to me for review,” says Mohamed. “It goes to the NGO as a thank-you that they can use in their marketing, and these girls now have something to put in their portfolio.”
I want to see that what we’re doing made a difference for gender equality and female empowerment
Phase 2 is all online. “We have weekly meetings on Zoom where I’m teaching some aspect of photography or storytelling, or even mindset or empowerment because they don’t get these messages,” says Mohamed. They spend a second hour reviewing photos or building their LinkedIn profile. “That’s a big thing because if they can’t get seen, how can they get hired.”
Phase 3 is about business skills: building a resume, a LinkedIn profile, a business plan. The girls learn how to save the money they’re making.
The final phase, a six- to 12-month mentorship program, is optional. Mentors from diverse backgrounds – including photography, business and entrepreneurship – meet virtually with their matched participant on a regular basis. “It’s about showing them the way and then letting them go forward with the tools that we give them,” says Mohamed.
The girls who participate in the program are journalism or mass communication students or graduates unable to find work either because they lack the skills or don’t own a camera. Since Cameras for Girls launched four years ago, 47 girls have gone through the program in Uganda. Of those, 65 per cent now have full-time paid work as journalists, photojournalists, photographers or communications professionals. Mohamed also started the program in South Africa, training 10 girls there so far. Another 85 girls across Africa have free access to phases 2, 3 and 4 of the program. “It starts with one skill, but there’s so many branches that they can venture into,” says Mohamed. “I can give the girls the tools, but then I tell them the world is your oyster. Let’s figure out what you need and develop that and then go forth.”
Mohamed’s students are grateful for their teacher’s support.
“I’ve heard that I’ve instilled confidence in them, that I’ve instilled a sense of belonging, that I’ve been able to push them out of their comfort zone, that I’ve been able to show them how to succeed,” says Mohamed. “That I’ve become Mom to them.”
By helping so many girls launch careers of their own, Mohamed may one day mentor herself out a job. That would be fine with her.
“I want to see that what we’re doing made a difference for gender equality and female empowerment, and females are actually given better roles in society than they already are,” she says. “Will I see it in my lifetime? Who knows. At least we’re talking about it.”