Witness Change
Witness Change uses storytelling such as photography, video, personal and recorded testimonies to support excluded people as they reclaim their narratives and improve their lives. Our focus areas are LGBTQI+ rights (Where Love Is Illegal), refugees (1000 Dreams) and people living with mental health, psychosocial and intellectual disabilities (In My World). Our work is global but a recent emphasis has been placed on US stories. We seek support to continue to amplify the voices of marginalized people and to elevate the capacity of the most vulnerable in our society to tell their own stories. We believe in impactful storytelling to create a more just world.
Through a collaborative approach we use visual storytelling to
Educate: equip excluded groups with the knowledge and skills to create and tell their own visual stories.
Create: work with excluded groups to collaboratively produce inclusive visual stories.
Impact: implement impact driven campaigns to influence and change attitudes
Our projects are made possible through the generous support of our partners. Our partnerships help us bring stories to people who otherwise would not be reached. This year at Witness Change, we are working to raise the following:
$60K for Where Love Is Illegal
$210K for 1000 Dreams
$45K for In My World
$100K for General Operating Support
Robin Hammond has dedicated his career to amplifying narratives of marginalised groups through long term visual storytelling projects. He is the founder and director of Witness Change. Career recognition includes the winning of two World Press Photo prizes, the RF Kennedy Journalism Award, six Pictures of the Year International Awards, the W.Eugene Smith Award for Humanistic Photography, the recipient of six Amnesty International awards for Human Rights journalism, winner of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award and being named by Foreign Policy as one of the “100 Leading Global Thinkers.”
“As an artist, I know that a single photograph can tell a greater truth than a pile of statistics, and there is profound humanity in giving individuals at the margins the opportunity to step into the light. Robin’s images tell the story of struggle and survival, of resilience and empathy, of discrimination and the hard work and advocacy needed to overcome it. These images show us people who seek only to live honestly, openly, with dignity and without fear.”
Elton John musician, activist, philanthropist
"One of my biggest challenges is coming across my fellow brothers and sisters in chains and shackles and not being able to help, to have to walk away... This donation will help us to free more people from chains and extend our mental health education campaign to other parts of Ghana - it will mean we won’t have to walk away anymore. ”
Stephen Asante Director of Mental Health Advocacy Foundation, Ghana
MHAF received donations of over $50,000 after Witness Change created a campaign to highlight the work they are doing with people living with mental health conditions in northern Ghana.
Financials
Programs
Where Love Is Illegal - LGBTQI+ stories of survival
Where Love is Illegal shares LGBTQI+ stories from around the world, supporting queer folks to take back control of the narratives of their lives.
Through sharing these stories, Witness Change supported dozens of grassroots LGBTQI+ groups, reaching hundreds of millions of people.
1000 Dreams - by refugees, for refugees
In 2019 we created 1000 Dreams - a campaign that elevates the capacity of refugees to tell their own stories so that they can be seen and heard in a way they feel is authentic and that is representative of their experience.
1000 Dreams seeks to change toxic refugee narratives through a storytelling project that shares the experiences of 1000 refugees. It is entirely authored by storytellers with a refugee background trained by Witness Change.
In My World - the global mental health crisis
In My World highlights stories of people living with mental health or psychosocial issues, intellectual disability, and cognitive disorders so that they are seen, heard and valued.
The project campaigns for mental health service providers and human rights campaigners. The subsequent 11 years has seen the expansion of this project to over 20 countries with campaigns ranging from the ‘de-chaining’ of people with mental health issues to the creation of spaces for people to share their own experience of mental illness.