Canon South Africa has a long-standing reputation of giving back to the community. As part of its Young People Program (YPP), which aims to equip young people with skills, tools, and the platforms they need to share their stories and create opportunities for themselves, Canon regularly embarks on various initiatives that serve the community.
My Canon Moment picture days
The My Canon Moment picture days give students a chance to have their pictures taken, preserving memories and giving them a sense of pride in their school experience. Last year, Canon visited schools in Soweto, where they took roughly 10,000 pictures in two days. This year, Canon visited Limpopo’s Dorothy Langa Primary School (21 June) and Masedibu Higher Secondary School (22 June). After taking the pictures, Canon supplies each child with three A4-sized pictures (one from the waist up, one full body picture, and one class picture with their peers and teachers). The company hopes to take the initiative to all South African provinces at some point over the next few years.
“We go to schools on the outskirts of towns to give deserving kids a fully funded school picture day. This was prompted by my own experience. Photos of my child are all over my grandmother’s house, but some of her other grandchildren are absent because their parents can’t afford school pictures. My Canon Moment is a wholesome, feel-good initiative, and its reception has been amazing,” explained Arethur Molefe, Corporate and Marketing Communications Manager at Canon South Africa, and the force behind Canon’s picture day.
This year, Kope Makgae, Founder and CEO of Wyza Media, partnered with Canon to give back to schools. Students from his film and television academy helped Canon make the My Canon Moment initiative a resounding success with their passion for capturing moments.
Photography workshops
In addition to the My Canon Moment picture days, Canon hosted a three-day workshop in collaboration with Wyza and Wild Shots Outreach at Noko Lodge in Limpopo. Wild Shots Outreach has been one of Canon’s trusted YPP partners since 2017, and offers workshops to teach photography skills to disadvantaged communities. Part of the program involves taking young people on their first game drive and reconnecting them with their natural heritage through photography and film.
“It’s so inspiring when different entities come together for one purpose: to advance disadvantaged youth through cameras and photography,” Kope said.
Adding to the conversation was Mike Kendrick from Wild Shots Outreach, “The workshop provided a platform for young people to inspire each other and learn from up-and-coming enthusiasts. Throughout the course of the workshop, we held two sessions where we covered still photography. The sessions taught the students how to use shutter speed correctly, freezing the action and motion blur, and depth of field.”
After being sorted into groups, the 30 students were asked to put what they had learnt during the workshop into practice. They crafted short stories using Canon cameras and had to edit them within 72-hours before submitting their work for judging. The final projects combined video and still photography renders to tell a story.
“What our organisations and Canon are delivering here are transferable skills. We’re building self-confidence and helping young people become confident with new technologies. They’re proving to themselves that they can learn new skills that can potentially lead to employment or aid in starting an enterprise for themselves. Our workshop provided a safe and secure environment where they could learn these transferable skills from role models who were previously in their shoes,” said Mike.
“Changing the life of a student can lead to changing their communities or their families. By paying it forward to them, they can do the same for others. These initiatives are more than just cameras and lenses, it’s about enriching lives,” Kope concluded.
Canon’s YPP initiatives empower young people to act on their dreams. Projects like the My Canon Moment picture days, and support for Wyzamedia courses and Wild Shots Outreach workshop prove that Canon is a company that cares about young South Africans and hopes to use the power of imaging technology and storytelling to create a better future for all.
For more information on Wild Shots Outreach visit: https://www.wildshotsoutreach.org/