Imagine when the stories you hear from the poorest communities are not driven by NGOs, media outlets and authorities, but the people in those communities.
This is what we did with Reframe The City, a project developed and produced for Plan International.
Along with an interactive multimedia platform, we trained young people in slum communities in seven countries around the world to report their stories with photography and use it in multiple forms to amplify their voices both locally as well as globally.
In slum communities worldwide, stories often come filtered through NGOs and media outlets, leaving local voices unheard. Reframe The City flipped this narrative by putting cameras and storytelling tools directly in the hands of young people across seven countries. This innovative project, developed for Plan International, transformed residents from subjects of stories into storytellers of their own reality.
Why the story matters
or informal settlements by 2050
with many being children and adolescents
We needed to create a system that would amplify local voices while delivering tangible value for both communities and Plan International. The solution had to work across different cultures and languages, empower young people with minimal prior experience, and produce content compelling enough to drive real change.
We designed an integrated program combining hands-on photography workshops with a multimedia platform that connected local storytellers to global audiences. Young participants learned professional photography and storytelling techniques through intensive training sessions. Their stories found homes on dedicated Instagram accounts, creating direct channels between communities and decision-makers. We built an interactive platform that transformed these personal narratives into powerful tools for fundraising and advocacy.
The project's impact rippled from local to global levels. Stories captured by young photographers influenced local authorities' decisions about community development. The multimedia platform became a cornerstone of Plan International's fundraising efforts, while the methodology was integrated into their global monitoring strategy. Most importantly, the project created a sustainable model where communities continued to document and share their own stories of challenge and change and was expanded on later with a even more global project around community journalism.
- Production Year: 2015-2017
- Client: Plan International
- Role: Concept Development, Workshops, Photography, Filmmaking, Production
