odanga_masinde

I am a young African leader affiliated with the Mandela Washington Fellowship, working to create a difference in the lives of youth in my community through business, innovation and entrepreneurship mentorship. Through the recently wound up Taalanta Initiative, I was able to impact the lives of youth and bring about a change in mindset that allows them to think of innovative ways of solving the issues that affect them the most and finding ways to create financial stability out of it. As a result of the work that we had done with Taalanta, I realized the potential that lays in visual story telling and embarked on a journey to change peoples lives through portraits paired with stories. I took on a challenge to take 1000 portraits and to tell 1000 stories of hope, success, loss and pain, challenges and triumphs, from the subject of the portraits, through my lens and my words to the world. All of this would culminate in a one of a kind live art exhibition across the continent featuring all 1000 subjects telling their stories in person. It would also include a printed 1000 page book with each piece of art and its corresponding story being printed and sold across the world. For millennia we have used stories to pass on from generation to generation words of wisdom, warnings, success, hope, joy and memories. It is time that we used the same to impact the people in our communities.