...when creative, passionate, and driven people meet, you know about it, you feel it, no matter what discipline; there is an intensity, a focus, and understanding. During his 2017 trip to Uganda, Tommy met a keen young photographer called David, in Kyabirwa Village. Twenty minutes later he had a big camera around his neck and set about documenting projects alongside Tommy.
Over that trip…
David would join Tommy each day, pick up his camera and crack on. Soon he was introduced to lighting and worked with Tommy on portrait shoots, becoming a vital part of the team and also a creative and competent photographer. David’s ability to translate the local language allowed Tommy to connect and build relationships beyond the language barrier and convey ideas and intentions for photography. All of this expanded the adventures, exploring new ideas, and meeting new groups of interesting humans.
Throughout the next 2 trips, Tommy and David worked together each day creating images and travelling around, building a great working team and friendship. In February 2019 the pair of them travelled into Kampala to meet a group called New Hope Dance Project based in the slums. Although a large group it was clear from their time together that two people stood out as leaders with passion and heart for their community and what they were doing each day.
Ambrose and Morris, are creative, community-focused, and driven to make people’s lives healthier, happier, and safer through dance, yoga, and meditation. They connect with many organisations to enable support for families and especially children in their community to access medical support and food supplies. It was clear David and Tommy had found an opportunity to expand the team.
In the Year Following…
In the year following their first shoots together, they stayed in touch and in October 2019 developed The Sleepwell Project a very creative and very human collaboration focused on supporting the mental and physical well-being of their community members through a safer, more comfortable sleep. This was the team’s first project involving outside support, with people around the world signing up to select and buy a mattress package which would be given to a family.
In February 2020 as team Think People Think Story they successfully delivered the project in Kampala. This was the moment they had all worked towards and arrived at together, none could have made it here alone, they believed in what they were doing and the potential impact their combined creativity could achieve.
Within Days…
…of arriving back into the UK following the Sleepwell Project, the world was going into a Corona Virus lockdown. This included the UK and very quickly Uganda. Speaking with the team and understanding that the effect of lockdown would be less about the worry of the virus but more about the very real issue of hunger and starvation for the very poorest of families, the team launched their next initiative immediately.
Over the 10 months in 2020, COVID -19 vs UGANDA delivered 10 phases of support across both Davids community in the village and Acholi in Kampala where Morris and Ambrose live. With 100% of all donations going directly into each phase, around 34,000 bowls of life-sustaining food, 700 masks, and 460+ cartons of milk were delivered. The team continues to move forwards and would love you to join them, find out a little more about what, why, and how we do it below…
WHat WE DO…
At Think People Think Story, we approach our everyday personal and creative lives with
Integrity, Empathy, Courage, and Kindness.
Our aim...? to simply use creativity to inspire and empower every human we meet to feel a little less fear and a lot more self-confident, comfortable, and positive within themselves and their lives.
Every human has a story, a reason why, and it’s essential we all step back to ask a question, learn to listen, and take the time to understand before we react, respond, or judge.
With relationships at the heart of everything we do, our teams devise and deliver life-changing projects, initiatives, and photography experiences in Uganda, Africa. Through inspiring positive and creative community collaborations, we share the power of photography to educate, motivate, mobilise, and support the mental and physical wellness of human beings.
Think People Think Story is not limited to our Ugandan adventures, it is a message, a question, that you can embrace into your daily interactions with family, friends, colleagues, and strangers. Approaching everyday situations with mental and physical courage whilst deploying empathy, understanding, patience, and kindness in even the most testing moments.
By simply reconnecting with these words each day you will become more aware of those around you. Feeling more confident, considerate and patient with the understanding that we all have our direction, priorities, personal process, and our reasons why we say the things we say and do the things we do. Not all of this energy is going to work in harmony all of the time or with everyone, and nor should it. Think People Think Story...
“inspire and empower every human we meet to feel a little less fear and a lot more self-confident.”
HOW WE DO IT…
Think People Think Story has evolved from a 15-year adventure with a camera that continues to give
beautiful opportunities to enter the world of strangers, only to leave as friends and sometimes family.
Each project begins and continues to be driven by a passion for people, photography, creativity, and adventure, and along the way the projects have become more connected, although our approach has stayed very similar. The team has expanded with Tommy in the UK, David, Ambrose, and Morris in Uganda and Clare in Australia and Uganda.
In October 2019 for the first time we invited people from around the world to support our projects through participation and donations, from here we were able to deliver projects like ‘The Sleepwell Project’ not previously possible, enabling us to impact more people along the way.
Through 100% of direct donations and 50% of our shop profits, money is directed to the teams on the ground for specific projects. The money is sent securely through world remit to the team’s mobile phone accounts, which is a very cost-effective method to send and a super-easy way for the majority of Ugandans to handle their money. The team then use local mobile money banks to withdraw the funds.
From here the donations are used to purchase the necessary items to proceed with each project, for example, the mattresses, nets, and blankets for the Sleepwell Project and more recently the life-sustaining food supplies for our initiative COVID-19 vs UGANDA. Within less-than 30 minutes of the money leaving the UK, it can be put to work in Uganda.
CHECK OUT the projects page which form the foundation of Think People Think Story. The Sleepwell Project was our first publicly supported initiative directly followed by COVID-19 vs UGANDA.
100% of your personal donation will go directly into supporting our very creative and very human initiatives throughout the year in both Acholi Quarters, Kampala and Bujagali Village, near Jinja.
