Free Family Photos for Refugees/Disaster Survivors

Since our last report in January, we have had quite a bit happening. Our headquarters is in North Carolina, and we travel extensively across the state working with communities. We offer free family photos and portraits to people who have lost their homes and belongings due to disasters or conflict; the majority of who we photograph are refugees, immigrants, migrants, humanitarian parolees, asylum seekers, and displaced people. 

We have given free portraits to numerous refugee families who originally come from Afghanistan, Syria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their stories have been heartwrenching and awe-inspiring. The Afghan families were still very fresh with their experiences of being humanitiarn parolees and in emergency mode, the Syrian families left their homes a decade ago and have been waiting in countries such as Jordan and Kurdistan to be relocated, and the Congolese families have been on this journey for twenty years. Each family had a unique situation, and we were honored to hear them all. 

In mid-April, our director visited Puerto Rico and worked within the community in San Juan. She met with connections at the Red Cross chapter there and was able to photograph a family who lost everything from recent flooding. She had local supporters on the ground offer to help as guides/translators/drivers, which is a necessity on the island. It was a wonderful first introduction to life there, and we are very excited to have an on-going presence helping the massive amount of families who have endured disaster after disaster.

We have so much we want to do and communities we want to work with, and we need continued support to make it a reality. We are grateful for the donations we have received so far, but we need more in order to help more families. Thank you for following along and stay tuned for more!

Retake went through GlobalGiving's Accelerator Program in September 2021. In that three week period, we raised $5,038 from 50 unique donors. Thanks to the generosity and support of our community, that means we were accepted into GlobalGiving's platform as a nonprofit partner. We met their criteria to pass the program.

In the following months, we raised more funds through our year-end giving and #GivingTuesday campaign across our social media. 

At Retake, we offer free photos and photoshoots to people who have lost their belongings due to disasters or conflict. Primarily we work with refugees and immigrants who have been relocated. We work with local organizations and people on the ground who connect us with the photoshoot recipients; we do a photoshoot; we edit/print/frame the photos; and we deliver the photographs. We give new keepsakes as they rebuild their lives.

Since the Accelerator Program ended, we worked with refugees families in North Carolina from the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as recently resettled Afghan refugee families. Due to security and privacy concerns, their stories and images will not be displayed on our social media channels, but it was very rewarding for our staff to meet them, hear what they've been through, and offer them their new family portraits to hang in their new homes.

We look forward to our upcoming work in 2022. To stay informed, be sure to check out our website: www.retakeorganization.com where you can join our newsletter and see our social media. Thank you so much for your support.