Free Family Photos for Refugees/Disaster Survivors

Hello friends! We are just about halfway through 2023 and wanted to give an update to all of our supporters and followers. We are continuing to grow thanks to your help, and we are so very grateful to you. With your aid, we were able to give free photographs and new keepsakes to families who have gone through unimaginable situations and extremely hard chapters in their lives. It was our honor to give them framed photographs to hang up on their walls and memories to cherish. Here are some specifics:

• In January, we photographed refugee families in Tampa, Florida.
• In February, we photographed refugee families in St. Petersburg, Florida and hurricane survivors in Fort Myers, Florida.
• In March, we photographed migrant families in Juarez, Mexico at border shelters. We also photographed refugee families in Raleigh, North Carolina.
• In April, we photographed hurricane survivor families outside New Orleans in a small rural area called Gonazalez, Louisiana. We also photographed refugees in Raleigh, North Carolina and Wilmington, North Carolina.

We have photographed 220 people who were refugees, immigrants, migrants, asylum seekers, humanitarian parolees, or disaster survivors. 

They originated from following countries: Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Venezuela, USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Honduras, and Ukraine. 

The second half of the year will be just as busy and also include World Refugee Day celebrations in June. We look forward to sharing more of the work we do. And if you are able, please consider donating again! Every little bit helps.

Thank you!

The Team at Retake

"New keepsakes as you rebuild your life."

Welcome to a new year! Is it just me or does it feel like this year is flying by already? Tomorrow is February! After a wonderful holiday season and busy #GivingTuesday, our team started the year with a board meeting. We welcomed a new board member and planned what this year could like. 

I kicked off the new year by heading down to Tampa, Florida where I currently am. I'll be working here for the next couple of weeks, and it's been a beautiful location to start 2023.

Myself and the team at Retake are planning a full year of photoshoots and travel, and I can't wait to share with you all what's in the works. 

Aside from having sunshine and warm weather, Tampa has a lot to offer! There are so many families in the community that we can work with, and we are thrilled to be partnering with an organization called RAMWI. RAMWI stands for Refugee and Migrant Women Initiative. Their mission is to enhance the lives of refugee and migrant women in the community by providing an opportunity to heal, engage with others while learning the skills necessary to become self-sustainable, organize, and advocate for themselves.

We already worked with them at the end of January at the University of South Florida's Tampa campus. Four families from Afghanistan came out dressed to impress and ready for new family portraits. 

As we look towards the rest of the year, there are a lot of places we want to go and photographs we want to give. Here's what we have planned so far:

• Tampa, Florida until mid-February to work with refugee and migrant families
• Fort Myers, Florida in mid-February to work with families who lost everything from the recent Hurricane Ian
• Wilmington, North Carolina at the end of February to work with newly resettled refugee families
• El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico in the beginning of March to work with migrant families at the border
• Raleigh, North Carolina and Greensboro, North Carolina throughout March and April to work with refugee families
• and a lot more!

Thank you for supporting our work. We are able to give free portraits through our dignified photoshoots to refugees, migrants, immirants, displaced people, asylum seekers, and those who have survived disasters because of your donations and because you are a part of our community.