Nola has written us about an unexpected and joyful adventure she had recently with Gautam Lewis, a videographer and photographer who came to Condega to make a video about the Asla Foundation, and photograph our students and the communities where they live. Nola had never met him before, but she learned a bit about him before working with him.
I am so excited about these videos because they show our students, their homes and gives you a sense of their lives in Nicaragua. Below are some of Gautam’s photographs and you can watch the videos here:
Here is Nola’s story about her time with Gautam in April:
Gautam was born in India. When he was a young toddler he developed polio, and his parents, unable to care for him, abandoned him in the streets of Calcutta. Mother Teresa found him and brought him to the Ministry of Charities to be cared for there. At around age 8 he was adopted by an English woman, and he was educated in the New Zealand and England. He recently moved to Nicaragua and very generously helps non-profit organizations show off their amazing work through his professional photographs and videos. He offered to help the Asla Foundation capture the work it’s accomplishing in order to share it with more people. I found him to be a fascinating human being, and I gained so much by helping with this video for the Asla Foundation.
Gautam concentrated on filming a few of our scholarship students. He filmed them at their schools and their homes, and some as they were walking to school. One student walks an hour and a half through the hills and crosses a river to get to her school. I really enjoyed going to the homes and talking with both the students and their parents. Many live in very rural settings, and we would drive as far as we could and then walk the rest of the way, carrying the filming equipment and sometimes crossing a creek or two. We would leave Condega by 7:30 am, return late in the day around 5:30 pm, eat, and then work on translations from Spanish to English. The days were very long and tiring, but in a very good way. Seeing the students in various settings, (their schools, their homes, their journeys to school), made me realize even more just how important the Asla Foundation scholarship program is to them. Asla helps with the lives, education, and futures of these youth. They have many obstacles in their path, but through Asla, they have the opportunity to get an education, be it high school or university, and therefore improving their lives and the lives of their families. I have included some photos of Gautam Lewis here in Condega and in the rural areas filming the students. Thank you all for supporting the Asla Foundation, and please tell a friend about Asla so that more students can receive the support that they need.
Photos by Gautam Lewis in and around Condega, Nicaragua – April 2019
Nola Nackerud with some of our students
A few of our students with their teacher in their classroom
In the community of Santa Teresa
The community of Santa Teresa
The town of Condega
The town of Condega
One of our deaf college scholarship students recipients, Carlos Enoc Pineda
Mural in Condega
2019 Scholarship Recipients