Michael is a world-class, professional track and field athlete with a heart for guiding young lives and a passion for community activism. In 2002 he founded The Michael Walton Foundation to provide positive outlets and opportunities for self development for underserved youth in grades 6th – 12th in the Greater Washington DC area. While traveling with youth from the MWF in Brazil he added Dog Meets World to give back to youth in Brasilia. Photos were taken at a program called Transforme in Brazil, a youth drug rehabilitation center. He said

I got the feeling that many of the youth that recieved photos hadn’t had that opportunity often. Collaborating with DMW made me feel as if we were leaving behind a special memory in the lives of these youth.. that it was a ray of light that they can look back upon as they go through their day to day challenges with rehabilitation. The Michael Walton Foundation will certainly use DMW on future trips.

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Smiles abound and parents were pleased! Super easy and fun to add Dog Meets World photo diplomacy to service projects. Helps happily fill in any down time and offers another way to interact with locals. College students from the University of Maryland, College Park said giving children the simple gift of a single photograph was priceless. The love, the laughter and the instant happiness is something you must experience in order to understand what it means to really study your abroad experience.

ATTENTION ALL COLLEGE STUDENTS planning to study abroad or take alternate breaks in areas of need around the globe. Like these students doing a service project in Brazil, just bring along Foto and a printer to add a new interactive dimension to your experiences.

Giving children the simple gift of a single photograph was priceless. The love, the laughter and the instant happiness is something you must experience in order to understand what it means to really study your abroad surrounding.

Phodographer Melissa Waksman in Mangueira, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 2010

James Kahn accompanied students from the Univ. of Maryland – Hillel organization doing volunteer work in an impoverished areas of Rio de Janeiro. Who was having more fun, the giver or the receiver? Dog Meets World is meaningful to those on both sides of the camera’s lens!

Calling all backpackers to join the community of phodographers and connect wherever you go!!

Here is a fascinating account from John Carr of London who backpacked with a printer to practice Dog Meets World. “Travelling with the locals on a slow boat on the Amazon, furnished with hammocks and little else, we’d noticed the day before that occasionally river-dwellers from huts would paddle out in canoes in the hope of collecting something from the boat. Later a canoe actually attached itself to the boat, and three young boys clambered on the boat with bags of shrimp to sell the passengers; aged between 4 and 9, they lived in one of the river-huts and were trying to get money for provisions.

As the youngest of the boys came round to my hammock, I asked him in broken Portuguese whether he wanted a photo. He looked a little confused but was happily manoevered for a photo, before standing sheepishly by as I pulled out a strange contraption and urged him to watch and wait. As I handed him the photo, he seemed completely bamboozled, looking from me to it with a dumbfounded look, before his brothers came along, completely amazed, and ran off down the boat with the photo. One by one, they came back, looking at me expectantly before they too had a photo of their own. Minutes later, with photos safely sealed away, the youngest rowed back out to the river while the other two backflipped off the boat and disappeared into the distance.

The BEST side effect of sharing photos with Dog Meets World is making new friends. The personal photos these girls received from Emily and the other students volunteering as part of an Alternative Break program organized through Hillel at the University of Maryland will be kept for years….maybe a lifetime. The girls will have long forgotten Emily’s name, but not how she made them feel by affirming them in this way! Diplomacy for everyone.

John ended his months long backpacking trip around South America by volunteering in a kindergarten for children in one of the poorest villas in Buenos Aires: Los Eucalypts, Suarez. The kindergarten, Jardin Traversuras, is run by donated money and is down to the hard work of a local woman, Lorena, who spends every day with the children before going to work. The children are all aged 3-5 and would otherwise be playing in the streets; they are all absolutely amazing. He took his camera and printer into the kindergarten and spent two hours taking and printing pictures – much to their delight and the gratitude of Lorena.

John says he became a “phoDOGrpaher” because he was “Keen to give something back, spread joy and meet people in the places I travel.”

NEW College Phodographers in Mangueira, Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, March 2010

Students from the Univ. of Maryland College Park, members of the Hillel organization, spent their spring break doing volunteer work in impoverished areas of Rio de Janeiro and brought along Foto and the Dog Meets World project. Melissa Waksman states the value of the project “Every single human being should have a picture of themselves because a picture speaks a thousand words and memories are so important for happiness.” A shout out to the group for making a difference!

A fascinating account from John Carr of London who is backpacking with a printer to practice Dog Meets World. John emailed, “Travelling with the locals on a slow boat, furnished with hammocks and little else, we’d noticed the day before that occasionally river-dwellers from huts would paddle out in canoes in the hope of collecting something from the boat. Later a canoe actually attached itself to the boat, and three young boys clambered on the boat with bags of shrimp to sell the passengers; aged between 4 and 9, they lived in one of the river-huts and were trying to get money for provisions.

As the youngest of the boys came round to my hammock, I asked him in broken Portuguese whether he wanted a photo. He looked a little confused but was happily manoevered for a photo, before standing sheepishly by as I pulled out a strange contraption and urged him to watch and wait. As I handed him the photo, he seemed completely bamboozled, looking from me to it with a dumbfounded look, before his brothers came along, completely amazed, and ran off down the boat with the photo. One by one, they came back, looking at me expectantly before they too had a photo of their own. Minutes later, with photos safely sealed away, the youngest rowed back out to the river while the other two backflipped off the boat and disappeared into the distance.

John commented that “This was a good first taste of DMW in practice and I look forward to more opportunities.”