A Photography-Inspired Learning Program by WT Foundation
At first I thought that photography was just a way to teach children skills, but later I realized that photography is actually a vehicle that provides many things and has a great impact!
―― Chairman of the WT Foundation, David Yang
Based on the spirit of “diversified development, happy learning” and “caring for the disadvantaged and giving back to society”, we are involved in education in remote areas of Taiwan. Since 2015, the WT Foundation has sponsored projects such as the Yunlin County Zhengmin Elementary School Public Private School Sponsorship Project, the Junyi Education Academy Teacher Training Project and the Junyi Experimental High School Creative Learning Group Experimental Curriculum Project. In 2021, we launched SHINING HOPE: A Photography-Inspired Learning Program. In so doing, we transformed from a sponsor to a practitioner that serves children at the front line!
Say Cheese! Press the shutter to continue love and touching moments
SHINING HOPE: A Photography-Inspired Learning Program does not only teach children photography skills, but also aims to achieve cross-disciplinary learning through the medium of photography, provide children with a lot of companionship and care, build their self- confidence, and cultivate a sense of local identity. WT has found that this project has gradually grown stronger and more effective because of the close cooperation and mutual assistance among enterprises, schools and volunteers, which has enabled children to benefit and love to continue. Just like waiting for an opportunity to press the shutter, it takes timing, location, and people to take many beautiful, moving photos. And we are waiting for these moments to arrive!
Through the lens of photography, we can see the dedication of teachers and the growth of children.
At the core of SHINING HOPE: A Photography-Inspired Learning Program is the participation of school teachers. School teachers play an important role in the project as a bridge between WT and the children! They discuss the curriculum and the children’s needs with the volunteers, and lead the children to do extended lesson plans for the photography class. Through the images taken in the photography classes, the children practiced finding symbolic elements in the images to create monster wrapped paintings, and took them to set up and practice developing them together. At the end of the year, we saw a significant change in our children. They were more stable, more confident, and loved their hometown more!
For the photography project, the corporate side, the school side, and the volunteer side are the three strands of rope that when woven together cannot be easily broken. Thanks to the power of these three strands, children in remote areas are cared for and transformed, volunteers receive touching moments, and enterprises invested in markets also value humanitarian care.
Shining Hope
Number of students︱155
Number of volunteers︱55 (members are located in Taipei City, New Taipei City, Yilan, Taichung, Hualien, etc. Their occupational backgrounds include professional photographer, designer, medical examiner, retired teacher and spiritual related industries)
Hours of instruction︱16,200 hours (9 classes per school per semester, 90 minutes per class)
