WHAT DO WE DO?
We collaborate with local NGOs and work with them to develop the technology and skills they need in order to support the excellent work they do in the local community. We choose our partner NGOs based on the work they do locally. They are all dedicated to the community, follow through on their commitments and are making a significant difference in the communities where they work.
All Cloudhead projects relate in some way to Art, Education and Technology. We create art and media projects with the short term goal of creating a safe space for our students to create and express themselves. Our long term goal is to help our students develop marketable job skills, including English language.
We do not in any way interfere with the individual mission of each of our partner groups. We do our best to help our local NGOs raise funds to support their own initiatives. In all cases, our goal is to provide resources that allow the local NGO to remain independent of us.
How do we do it?
We bring in donated resources such as computers and cameras to use in at risk communities so our students then have the opportunity to learn photography, video and computer skills. They learn digital editing as well as how to better express themselves artistically as they create media projects. Each year, we host 3-5 exhibitions during which we share and sell the work our students create.
All profits from all sales go directly back to support the students who created the work.
For the past two years, Cloudhead has been part of the Adobe Foundation’s Taking It Global initiative. Adobe provides us with training, curricula and software plus a stipend to purchase additional equipment and supplies.
Where do volunteers fit in?
Our volunteers are invaluable to our mission in both tangible and intangible ways.
The tangible: Volunteers join us to teach classes and complete projects and exhibitions. Their previous experience broadens the range of skills and knowledge our students receive. Having extra hands in the classroom also allows each student to receive more individualized attention in addition to allowing us to offer our programs to a greater number of students.
The intangible: Our volunteers are travelers, photographers, artists and poets. They are website producers, designers and produce video for some of the best known publications both online and in print. Many times, our volunteers are the first people — aside from us — our students have met from outside of Argentina.
When our students see first hand that people can travel and work on the road, it opens their minds to different life possibilities. They meet people who make their living through photography or video. They engage in discussion about what life is like outside of Argentina and share their own lives. All of this expands the worlds of our students. They begin to think of themselves and envision their own life opportunities in new ways.
There is nothing more wonderful than when a volunteer leaves and a student asks me “Can you show me how I can do what he does?”
Over time, volunteers return and join our classes again, maintaining the commitment they have to Cloudhead and our students. We take class time to skype and reconnect with past volunteers, demonstrating the incredible power technology has to create, educate and form lasting connections between people who otherwise would never have met.
Learn more about volunteering with us on our Volunteer Information page.
