Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Who Will Know?

I happened to catch an episode of a reality series called In Harm's Way and my eyes were opened as to the stories that need to be told. The episode covered two Freelance War and Conflict Photographers who had a passion for sharing with the world the effects that war and conflict have on people who may not even be involved.


A few weeks ago I was working in Downtown Los Angeles and every morning on my way to work I had to pass a few blocks near a homeless shelter. The side walk appeared to be a hang out for the homeless and they freely crossed the street, even in traffic. While working in the area, we would save all our recyclables and give them to the first homeless person that asked for them. I only briefly got to interact with the homeless and observe them scrounging for anything that might provide them with cash to make it through another day.

Is there a reasons that we ignore these people? Why we only give them a smile? Why we think they are sometimes crazy? There is a reason we treat people the way we do, but do we know that there are organizations that are trying to do something to help these people; help them through rehab, job skills training, moral support, a place to sleep?

That is what our mission is. We want to let people know that something is being done and that people do care. Often times things start in our own back yard and the first step to changing the world is changing our community. Serving seems to be the best for of change.

Reworking the Approach

I have had a pressing urge to put more time and effort into The Mission Project. The name is one thing that needs some reworking to better encompass the vision of what we want to cover. We will also be updating the website and migrating it to a new location (to be released soon), that will include video, photo and interactive blogs in a social networking environment so you can share with others what you might be involved in.

A huge thing that we need to do is build up a contact base, so tell your friends about this website. Fund raisers are going to be scheduled for future dates and hopefully we can put together our first project soon.