Krista Photography Blog » Haiti

GIVE: Hope For the Children of Haiti

Krista Guenin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:44:09 +0000

A of couple years ago around this time, I was thinking and dreaming, and making plans for my business. I went through an extensive branding project, which is how I ended up with the Krista Photography you see today. Part of that process led me to make a pretty significant change in how I price my packages. I call it GIVE. I believe it’s my responsibility and privilege to give back from the abundance which I’ve been given. Not that I’m some extravagant lifestyle, but compared to rest of the world, I live in absolute luxury. Part of how I have tried to give back as a photographer over the last few years is through documentary missions photography. I’ve been able to help some wonderful non-profit organizations tell their story by providing images of the work they’re doing throughout the world. I am passionate about this kind of work, would love to do more! But I wanted my wedding photography to GIVE back as well. So, I began a program to GIVE 10% of every wedding package to charity. My couples can choose from a number of great organizations that I’m passionate about and it’s been a blessing to me to see how much we’ve been able to GIVE back together.

This week, one of the organizations dear to my heart has been especially on my mind and in my prayers. In June of 2008, I was commissioned by Hope For The Children Of Haiti to document their work in Port-au-Prince. It was a wonderful experience and am I’m so glad that they have been able to use my images to tell their story. While perusing Facebook the other day, I discovered that a massive and deadly earthquake had hit Port-au-Prince. As the hours passed, friends more intimately connected to the organization began posting news. Almost everyone from the organization is alive and accounted for, praise God, but their home and school have been destroyed. They are sleeping outside on a basketball court. And I can’t even begin to imagine how much death and destruction is all around them.

If you’ve seen the photographs coming out of Haiti, you may have some idea of the enormity of the damage. We can almost imagine it because here in the States, we saw Hurricane Katrina’s destruction. But we’re not talking about the wealthiest nation on Earth – we’re talking about one of the poorest. We’re talking about a country that has been devastated by hurricanes, mud slides, poverty, and cruel dictatorship… and now this.

This image is from my trip in June 2008, after a rain shower.

Imagine all of these homes, flattened. What are these people going to do now? In a country where you don’t always have power, sanitation is questionable, and infrastructure lacking – how are they going to rebuild?

Image taken the morning after the earthquake, from The Big Picture

Even the President of Haiti is without a home…

Image taken from The Big Picture. I just keep imagining what it would do to our morale in a time like this, if the White House was damaged so badly.

Please pray for this city, and for these people. Pray for the 50,000+ who have died. Pray for the tens of thousands left at risk for death by disease and starvation. Pray for the hundreds of thousands left homeless. Pray for the children left orphaned, and the parents left childless. Pray for HFCH as they care for their children, and as more children will surely come.

This was the boys’ home

If you would like to do something to help, please consider giving to Hope for the Children of Haiti. HFCH has set a goal to raise $250,000 to provide for the immediate needs of the children in their care, to rebuild their homes and school, and to minister to those who are suffering in their community. With your help, they’ll be able to reach that goal. As for the GIVE program – all weddings booked within the next 30 days will have only one option for their 10% donation… It will be going to Haiti.

Wanna See More?

Krista Guenin — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:13:00 +0000

Thank you so much to everyone for the wonderful, humbling, and encouraging response to my images from Haiti! My great desire as a photographer is to impact people with my images. To think that these have done that, is just amazing! Special thanks to those of you who have been spreading the word – especially Bryn and Stephanie. It’s been especially cool to hear from so many parents who are adopting Haitian children – from HFC and all sorts of other organizations. You parents are an inspiration to me, and I have really been blessed by your comments and emails!!

So, for those of you who are interested, or who are personally connected to the kids at HFC, I thought I’d offer you a peek the other 2,000 images! You can view them here. Enjoy!!

Out of the country!

Krista Guenin — Wed, 28 May 2008 03:29:00 +0000

Well, it’s about 4 hours before I have to leave for the airport, and I still haven’t packed for my trip to Haiti! But, such is life :) It’ll all get done somehow, even if it means I don’t sleep – at least I’ll sleep on the plane that way. haha!

I’ll be in Haiti until late Monday night, June 2nd. Please pray for a good safe trip. Pray that I would stay healthy, and that this picky eater would be able to eat whatever is put in front of her ;), and pray for some awesome photographs that HFCH will be able to use to increase their ministry in Port-au-Prince!! Thanks for taking this journey with me. I can’t wait to come home and share some photos with all of you!

I will be without email & internet access until Monday (eek!), so if you don’t hear back from me, that’s why :) I’ll do my best to respond to all emails when I get back to work next Tuesday.

and because posts without photos are lame… here’s a shot from my very first missions trip to Mexico back in 2002…

Have a great week!!

Hope For The Children of Haiti

Krista Guenin — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:11:00 +0000

One of my portrait clients is on the board for an organization called Hope For the Children of Haiti. Well, they’re not just on the board – but they’ve adopted 3 teenage boys through the ministry! To say that Hope For the Children of Haiti is a big part of their lives would be quite an understatement.

A few weeks ago we started talking about the possibility of me going down to Port-Au-Prince to document the ministry’s orphanage & school – and of course, the kids. Well, yesterday we bought our tickets and it’s official! I am so excited about the opportunity to work with HFC, and for the chance to visit Haiti for the first time! I have many friends who have visited Haiti, and this orphanage in particular, so I’m really looking forward to seeing it with my own eyes, and bringing that back to all of you. I’ll be heading down there at the end of the month, so stay tuned for photos and stories from Port-Au-Prince this summer!!