British award-winning writer and documentary filmmaker Michele D’Acosta is seeking to transform the lives of 170 African polio victims who are struggling to stay alive in the former British colony of Sierra Leone.
With the help of an international photography competition, D’Acosta’s goal is to bring global attention to the desperate plight of these forgotten people – and use her photo-journalism as a tool to help leverage medical attention, food, clean water and proper housing for the men, women and children that live in cramped and unsanitary conditions in a bombed out building on Pademba Road, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Michele D’Acosta began her film and television career as a reporter for the BBC – reporting on the break-up of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and then going on to produce a slew of television documentaries with the high profile and controversial director, Nick Broomfield. However, it wasn’t until D’Acosta had a wake-up call to change her life from television producer to a photographer and filmmaker working for positive social change that she took (for her) the unusual step of submitting her images of polio victims to the fifth annual EXPOSURE photography competition hosted by the See Me Gallery in New York City.
The winner of the EXPOSURE competition will be decided by public vote. More importantly, if she wins, D’Acosta will donate the winning prize money of $1,500 to set up a fund to kick-start a lifeline of financial support and medical help for these forgotten polio victims.
It is Michele’s personal belief that a country is judged by the wellbeing of its most vulnerable citizens. Sierra Leone is one of the ten poorest countries in the world and one of top ten diamond producing countries in the world. In supporting this critical Worldwide Wave of Action — please join her in taking action on behalf of disabled people whose plight is invisible to the mainstream media.
To vote now, click on https://icosta.see.me/exposure2014. Voting closes on Monday March 31st, 2014.
For more information, Michele can be reached at Michele@thepeaceproject.com By phone on +44 (0) 7417436097, on Twitter @michelepeaceday or Skype at micheleadacosta.
Thank you so much. I look forward to hearing from you.
Michele D'Acosta 
omg. haunting. voted! xo
Erica, you are a dear friend. Thank you for voting and being moved by this cause. Looking forward to voting for you!! Have a wonderful day. Michele xo
Hi Michele, you are back. I missed seeing your posts!
Have you considered using a crowd-funding site like Kickstarter for your project? I will go and vote now…
Dear Annette, yes I’m back… I’ve been missing my blog! Thank you for your wonderful appreciation. Love the idea of doing a Kickstarter campaign. Have you any experience of raising money on Kickstarter? Thanks so much for voting. Please feel free to pass along this link to your network. https://icosta.see.me/exposure2014 Much love and light 🙂
Don’t have any personal experience with kickstarter but have seen a number of projects that have been very successful. If you can get it on there, I can easily spread it thru my Facebook contacts.
Annette, thank you for your very kind offer. And I’m excited to be your FB friend 🙂
Long time no see! This looks like a very worthwhile cause, I shall bookmark this and see about voting when I get home from work.
Thank you… I missed you too! Very much appreciate your offer to vote. I look forward to visiting your blog soon. Have a beautiful day. Michele
Voted!
Very grateful to you. Thank you.
Amazing work. Voted. I feel a poem stirring in me from this. If something comes I’ll share with you. I’ve passed on to my digital network. Thank you!
Arifah, love and blessings and thank you so much for voting. So appreciate you taking a moment to do that. I do hope you write a poem. Your poem would be amazing to share with the polio victims in Sierra Leone. And thank you for passing this cause along to your digital network. Have a blessed day. Michele
Beautiful Michelle, my parents both had polio so I know how it’s effects are irreversible. They only hope is the vaccination. So I hope there is a vaccination program in Sierra Leone. I’m votin’ for ya’. Love Michael.
Dearest Michael, I’m deeply touched by what you shared about your parents. We’ve never talked about this before…. And I very much appreciate you taking the time to vote for this cause. The vaccination program was interrupted during Sierra Leone’s civil war. And, as you can see for yourself, the devastating life situation of being disabled in one of the poorest countries of the world. Hope your new life is wonderful in Brazil. Love Michele
Oh, good luck! I’m going to vote, now!
Thank you for the well wishes… and for your vote. Please let me know if I can be of help to you in some way… Blessings, Michele
A truly laudable effort to give of Yourself! Excellent photography – so much soul revealed… Theirs… and Yours. (I don’t use the social media so did not see how to vote) But beautiful work!
Your kind words touch my heart. Thank you so much for caring and for your support. Blessings and peace to you, Michele
I have long known you were amazing, little did I know you had done this much for the rest of the world. Bless you
Alex
Alex, wow, I am at a loss for words… Thank you so much. May you continue to be blessed in all that you do. Peace and love, Michele
I am appreciative of your blessings. May spring bring us both new joys.
Alex
Alex, thank you for your poetic blessings. All the best, Michele
Great to see you back Michele. You’ve obviously been very busy and on a worthy project. These pictures definitely move a person. We tend to forget that diseases like polio and smallpox are still rampant in some countries. I’m attempting to login to see.me so I can vote.
Cheers
Laurie.
Laurie, you always inspire me with your sensitive observations… and it’s good to be back and connecting with friends, fellow bloggers and this incredible community on WordPress. Thank you so much for your vote. Hope you are well. Peace and blessings, Michele
Why thank you Michele, I can be serious at times. WordPress certainly is a vibrant community that seems t cater for everybody. Yes I managed to log into see.me and I cast my vote. I wish you all the very best with your photo competition Michele.
Cheers
Laurie.
Dearest Laurie, thank you so much for voting. Every vote counts for the people of Sierra Leone struggling with polio. And, yes, WordPress is a wonderful vibrant community — thanks to good people like you, Laurie. All my best, Michele
Michele, you are such a beautiful soul! Voting right away!
Hanne, thank you so much for your continuing support. You are very special. 🙂
And so are you!!!
And wonderful to see you here again. It seems like ages has passed.
And a beautiful soul (sister)!
Soul sister, I’m honored to be just that!
Wonderful initiative. Voted. All the best.
Bupe, you’re beautiful and your vote means a lot to me. Thank you 🙂
My pleasure 🙂
[ Smiles ] Great topic!
By the way, it has been a while since I have seen you on WordPress. It is nice to know that you are still blogging.
Dearest Renard, I love your [Smiles]!! It feels good to be back. This is the best social network by far… Thanks to people like you. [More smiles…]
[ Smiles ] Oh, thank you, Michele
That was rather nice of you.
WordPress is indeed a fabulous blog site.
In my mind, you are the quintessential blog writer 🙂
Your pictures each tell a story.. they are pieces of art.. I would love to hear more… and of course I’ll vote.
Björn, I am deeply moved by your appreciation. Thank you so much. I will be posting more about this African polio community in the coming days and weeks. In addition, thank you for voting. I have great admiration for you and your work. I wish you continued success in all that you do. Peace and blessings, Michele
Voted! Fantastic project. In heart and imagery.
Thank you for your kind words and your important vote. Please feel free to share this project with your network. Wishing you continued success in all that you do. Best, Michele
Hi Michele, you have my vote, and the very best of luck. I hope you win, especially as you are aiming to donate the money to this worthy cause.
Hi Cheryl, thank you for voting. Your support means so much to me. All the very best to you. Thank you again and keep up your tremendous work.
I wonder why I didn’t come across this before. A very noble effort indeed. How did you get to visit Sierra Leone, let alone find out about the polio victims on Pademba Road? Would love to talk with you further about your efforts (I did vote) and your background. When will you be back in Sierra Leone, if at all? I may be there in the summer, definitely at the end of the year. All the best to you!
Thanks so much for visiting my blog and voting for this cause. I would love to be in contact with you via email and find out if there’s a way for us to collaborate on this project. How I came to be in Sierra Leone is a very long story…. which dates back to my time as a BBC journalist in London — a time which coincided with the start of the civil war in Sierra Leone. In terms of meeting the polio victims on Pademba Road… I was riding on the back of a motorbike (taxi) on my way to a meeting at the United Nations when I saw a polio victim crawling on his hands and knees as he begged for money in the street. I immediately asked the motorbike taxi-driver to stop… and he acted as the translator because the polio sufferer didn’t speak any English: and from that moment, I was led to what still feels to this day like a date with destiny. Below is a link to a 4-minute video that I shot of the Pademba Road polio victims. Thank you again and I will email you later today. Blessings and love, Michele
Reblogged this on Art of Receptivity and commented:
This is a remarkable piece of photo-journalism. It’s astounding that there’s still polio cases out in the world. Now as you read you’ll see the prize money seems small. You may even ask yourself how can that do anything? I did. Then I realized that silence is the real killer. Sometimes silence is necessary for growth this is not one of those moments.
Also, money goes much, much father in Africa than it does in the US, for example. The power of $1 is significant to many Third World areas. (I really don’t like that term…that another subject.)
I hope you read this provocative piece of work and then vote for Michele D’Acosta through the EXPOSURE competition.
Namaste.
Michele, it gives me hope when someone engages for others. These times seem to be too much about the individual and not about community. Sure I gave you my vote.
Hello Michele- Your photography is so compelling. I will follow your blog to learn how your efforts are progressing. I wonder if the Gates Foundation would be interested in your mission…
Jane
Great work! Learned about you from Hanne T. Fisker’s post, here: http://htfisker.com/2014/02/25/waves-cliffs-and-sea-a-dance-of-threes/
Wow this is powerful stuff Michelle. I have also written a bit about polio as well but this is a part that I am not so familiar with, the impact on people in Sierra Leone. I would be honored to feature a guest post of your work on my site as well to help spread the word. If you are interested please let me know. Very emotionally touching photography. Wow.
Have you ever heard of the Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation? Here is a link http://www.mrofoundation.org/ to their site. They provide grants for documentary photography and short film. I know Manuel, he lives part time in Zurich and part time here in Rochester. He’s a good guy.
Hi Mark, thank you for bringing the Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation to my attention. I’ve looked at the site and their mission is truly remarkable. I look forward to submitting my work when submissions re-open in November. Manuel must be an amazing guy. My thanks to you once more. All best wishes and every success to you.