As a medical doctor working in urgent care, I’m used to assisting people in times of need. I work nine shifts a month at Shorecare, a 24 hour A&M facility in Auckland. However, this job is only 1 half of my business life – the rest of my working life is spent earning a living from another passion – photography. I am the owner of Firefly Photography, a specialist photographic studio in Browns Bay.
As a member of BNI Synergy, one of the things I love about BNI is our philosophy of Givers Gain and the way we can help and support people in the community through business. I want to go beyond just helping people in the local community – I have a dream of uplifting an entire village in Fiji.
My dream began in 2011, on what was meant to be a simple vacation in Fiji.
The resort in the Yasawas where we were staying arranges trips to the local village as a means of generating income for the village through tourism. We chose to attend church with the villagers on Sunday, and it was during this trip that I realised that the children of the village were currently on school holidays.
Never one to let an opportunity slip through my hand, I approached our guide to the village and discussed the possibility of returning the following day to capture portraits of those children and families who were interested. The idea was happily accepted.
These images were subsequently edited, printed and posted back to the village at no cost.
However, given how quickly it was put together, I only managed to photograph a small number of the children in the village.
I left Fiji in 2011 promising myself to return at some stage and photograph every single child.
Every family deserves memories of its children
I’ve always believed in the value of good portraiture. The photographs we create today are tomorrow’s priceless heirlooms. We live in a world where most of us walk around with a camera in our pocket – we’re taking more pictures than we ever did before. For the most part, these pictures are pretty average, don’t print well and generally never get put on display or seen by anyone else.
However, there is one thing worse than a mediocre image – having no image at all.
When it comes to our families and our children, I believe that not having these memories and visual reminders is an absolute tragedy. This was my motivation for capturing the portraits that I did in 2011 – to create memories for a beautiful and immensely hospitable group of people who generally don’t have photographs of their children. The day spent in the village photographing the kids was one of the most memorable experiences of my life.
I believe that I did something of value, but I knew it could be done better and on a larger scale with proper planning, and I vowed that I’d be back to do so.
The time to return has come
I believe the time has come to fulfil that promise, and I believe this ambitious project can be realised in 2016 with the support of the likes of BNI.
This project is big, and the more I discuss with my liaison to the village the more opportunities I find to do bigger and better things. My initial goal was to photograph the 60-70 children living in the village. I have since realised that there is an opportunity here to do something meaningful for the school in the village as well. School portraits, reading material and sporting equipment are all things that would make a positive difference.
I am currently in the planning phases of this project. My first task is to properly assess the feasibility of my idea and the willingness of the village for it to proceed next year. A project of this size cannot succeed without involvement from both sides. Once this project gets the green-light I can begin in earnest with the marketing and fundraising I need to turn this into a reality.
This is where BNI comes into the picture. At a weekly meeting I discussed with my fellow members my plans and was overwhelmed by their positivity. I immediately had 2 pledges of $500 each – from BNI NZ’s National Director Graham Southwell and a chapter member who is a Financial Advisor. I was also put in touch with the Flight Centre foundation for flights to Fiji. I plan to set up a Kickstarter campaign in 2016 and think it will really resonate with BNI members – particularly because of our philosophy of Givers Gain.
I want to create a groundswell of understanding and awareness and believe that this campaign can truly change lives. I’ve had about 5 years in BNI and my experience of meetings and one-on-ones suggests that other businesspeople will be quick to jump on board with this humanitarian campaign and provide pledges to try to uplift this Fijian village and its beautiful children.
It’s another great example of BNI businesspeople getting together to make something happen and change lives.
Rory Laubscher, BNI Synergy
