A picture taken by youth delegate Michel Lunanga from the DRC.
Doha: Down the hallway at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC), where the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), photos telling stories of people in LDCs adorn both sides of the pathway.
These photos were taken by youth delegates from LDCs to raise awareness of what it is like to be young in their countries. Powered by a partnership between Canon Europe and the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS), participants have a platform to showcase their stories to a broader audience and hopefully influence change as per the Doha Programme of Action. Photos from Madagascar, Chad, Laos, Through its Young People Programme (YPP), Canon empowers storytellers using the lens as their medium.
“In the LDCs, there are 46 different countries and over 30 of them are in the African region. So this is right in the middle of our region, and it is very relevant to us,” Adam Pensotti, Head of Canon Young People Programme and EMEA Social initiatives, told The Peninsula.
“The UN asked if we wanted to collaborate with them as part of the Young People programme and supply them with cameras and supply them with creative education, exactly as we do with the YPP, providing them with inspiration, education and empowerment, and teaching them how to use the cameras, tell stories about the world around them, and sustainability. The programme is founded on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”
According to Pensotti, the YPP picked 30 youth delegates who received Canon cameras last year. Canon also organized online courses to teach participants valuable photography and life skills.
“These young people would never have had that opportunity before to engage directly with the world around them. So as the people walk through the corridor and see their photos, stories, and narratives, they share their lives with us. That’s real empowerment. That’s a huge privilege for us to enable these people to tell their stories,” Pensotti added.
One of the programme’s beneficiaries and a youth delegate from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Michel Lunanga, who has become a mentor for young people, told The Peninsula that the YPP helped him find a purpose, especially coming from a region in the DRC hard hit by war.
“Once I met Canon, it helped me give people what I have because, as a photographer, it doesn’t make sense if someone else is not learning or doing what I can do. So I feel so proud of myself when I see my student doing almost what I do or better than me. It empowers me to learn more because they (the students) look at me as an example,” Michel said.
Commenting on his participation in the LDC in Doha, Michel said he’s representing his people by presenting the situation in the DRC to a global audience.
“People in my hometown have told me I’m representing them here. I had a chance to discuss the ongoing conflict and situation in my country.
“There is no peace; if there is no peace, we can’t be creative or do anything. So being here, I feel like I am the voice of others,” Michel added.
Michel and Canon have held workshops on the sidelines of the LDC to highlight the importance of the SDGs and how visual storytelling can be used to inspire action toward fulfilling them.
