Ripple Effect Images
iLCP photographers are not only active in conservation when they are involved with iLCP projects such as RAVEs or Tripod initiatives, many have their own inspired projects! One of these such projects is Ripple Effect Images. iLCP Fellow Annie Griffiths is the Executive Director.
“When drought parches wells and streams, someone must carry water. When storms bring devastation and disease, someone has to nurse the sick. Climate change hits hardest on the planet’s vulnerable edges. If women hold up half the sky, what do we do when it seems the sky is falling?” -Barbara Kingsolver, Ripple Effect Images
What We Do: Providing communications tools to NGOs and policy makers
In the most desperate areas around the world, where environmental changes have added to the heavy burden of women and children, Ripple Effect Images’ partners are there to dig a new well, provide seeds for the next harvest, inoculate the weak, or help them to deal with the crushing effects of climate change. It is our task, the work of Ripple Effect Images, to document both the challenges and the innovative programs that are empowering these women. We then make the images and stories available to our partners, at no cost, so that they can raise awareness and the funds that allow them to perform their life-saving work. We also provide our images to policy makers who are working hard to direct climate change dollars toward the programs that help women and girls.
Ripple Effect Images is also committed to raising awareness in the western world about the fact that women and girls are disproportionally affected by environmental change. Women and girls are the ones who must walk for miles to find water and fuel. As disease spreads, they nurse the sick. In many parts of the world, they are the primary farmers and laborers.
Our work enables our partners to tell the stories of the women and girls they serve. By providing images and stories, we humanize both the problems and solutions, and show how these courageous women can be the best investment in the world’s future.
Who We Are: A World class team of journalists with a common cause
Ripple Effect Images is a team of journalists dedicated to documenting the plight of women and girls around the world, and highlighting the programs that are helping to empower them, especially as they deal with the devastating effects of climate change. Working closely with policy makers, scientists, and NGOs to identify both the needs and the innovative programs that are helping women and girls, Ripple Effect journalists make strategic trips to document these programs. They then donate their photographs, video, and stories to the Ripple Effect Images Archive. This Archive is made available, at no cost, to our partner aid organizations and to policy makers who are working to help women as they deal with the tremendous challenges caused by climate change.
The extraordinary Ripple Effect team includes a MacArthur Genius Fellow, as well as Pulitzer Prize, Emmy Award, and National Humanities Medal winners.
Women bear a disproportionate share of the burden of climate change. Our images and films show this reality in unflinching terms. More importantly, we show the strength and perseverance of these women, and the programs that are helping them not only survive, but thrive. In this way, we strive to show both today’s truth and tomorrow’s promise.
“I believe in the power of the visual image to do everything from influence a single mind to impact the course of history. Ultimately, we are all connectors, midwives attempting, with camera in hand to move our fragile and courageous world forward.” -Lynn Johnson