Readers Who Care: Dede Pickering

“When I was introduced to CARE as a volunteer in 1998, my travels and my life came together. I have always been an avid traveler with a passion for photography. The women and children I saw through my camera lens really clicked something in my heart, and I decided I wanted to do something to help them.

“My photographs are an instant in time in another person’s life. Striving to capture places before there are too many footsteps, I have discovered global ties to native cultures, the environment, and ultimately my inner self.”

Dede has visited CARE sites in Guatemala, India, Ghana, Togo, and Benin. Here’s a glimpse of what she has taken from her experience…

When: 1999

“CARE’s micro-credit programs offer poor women in rural areas the opportunity to start businesses. This was the first project that the New York Women’s Initiative supported. I helped co-found the initiative in 1998. We provided mothers with additional loans to help ensure their daughters’ educations.”

Photo: As her parents meet in the next room for a micro-credit loan, a little girl looks out the window toward her future.

One of the women who had set up a business growing and harvesting beans.

This group of women received micro-credit loans.

Three girls enrolled in school.

When: 2000

“In India, education is often the only way to lift oneself out of poverty. For girls, education is life changing; it gives them opportunities their mothers could only dream of.”

Photo: This girl is part of a CARE program to educate girls.

When: 2003

“West Africa is another part of the world where children, especially little girls, are often robbed of an education for many reasons.”

Photo: “This is my favorite photo of Ghana. This woman is a headmistress in a local school and goes door-to-door, hut-to-hut, asking parents why their children are not in school.”

Two boys sitting in a classroom in Ghana.

A group of schoolchildren smiling outside the classroom.

This girl is able to attend school thanks to CARE.

A co-ed school financed by CARE in Benin.

Children in Benin.

These children benefited from the installation of a clean water system in Togo.

Originally published on MORE.com, February 2008.