Once again Dog Meets World was a huge success. A group from the University of Maryland Hillel did a spring break service project. The leader Marissa Neuman said “the students adored the project. We took pictures of over 100 students at a school we worked with. About 75 % of the children didn’t have photos of themselves. We also took some in the town where we were living, Sattlelite.”

Something so incredible about having your own photograph….but it’s also priceless to share with your friends to multiple the joy. Thank you to new phoDOGraphers Aliza, Ben, Allana, Scott, Jona, Jacob, Kara, Samantha and Allison for being photo diplomats!!

College Phodographers in Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic, Jan. 2010

College students sharing their images constantly on Facebook, email and Twitter….they get the value of sharing photos, most especially a first photo! A shout out to the members of the Hillel sponsored Alternate Break service trip adding Dog Meets World to their agenda: Marissa, Jonathan, Melanie, Ariel, Audrey, Kerin, Sara, Jamie, Ellen, Ilan & Melanie.

Phodographer Marissa Neuman in Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic, Jan 2010

Marissa was one of the leaders on an Alternate Winter Break with students sponsored by Hillel at the University of Maryland in

College Park. The group is gathered to watch their first photos being printed on-the-spot. While exploring the town of Monte Cristi she said “we also started to use the “Foto Dog,” which is a new photo diplomacy program called Dog Meets World. The goal of the program is provide individual photos of kids in developing countries. Therefore, we were able to instantly print out pictures of the orphans today we took on our cameras. The pictures brought smiles to all of the kids faces!”

All college groups can easily add Dog Meets World to their agendas while traveling in developing countries!

Jon and fellow students were volunteering in the Dominican Republic as part of an alternative break program from the University of Maryland in College Park. The basic instructions for Dog Meets World indicate to choose a background and shoot up close. The idea is not to show the impoverished conditions where the children live, but to respect and honor the individual by showing the richness of their personhood. Jon said he participated to “Give people who otherwise wouldn’t, a tangible photo of themselves. Letting them know someone cares.” See how much they cared here.

Melanie joined fellow members of the Univ. of Maryland Hillel organization to give up her winter break to volunteer at an orphanage in the DR. In her words…The children in the community who had never seen anything like the picture and printing process had such looks of awe on their faces. I can’t even begin to imagine what that feels like, but it was so special to experience.Thanks Melanie and group for your altruism!

Marissa Newman lead a group of students from the University of MD Hillel organization on a service alternate winter break trip and brought along the Dog Meets World project. She recounts that:
“ They were invited into a family’s house. There were five or six children whose father had died. They photographed all of the family and the mom (seen on the right) began opening up to one of the UMD students (in the red t-shirt). When the mom got the picture, she touched her hand to the student’s heart and touched the picture to her own heart.” Says it all. Happy Valentine’s Day to all.

Philanthropist Paul Sifton said practicing Dog Meets World was “spectacular“.

In the United States just how many pictures do we take the first week a child is born….10?, 50?, 100? or perhaps more like 1000! What a thrill for philanthropist Paul and team to take and immediately give out first photos to many children, including infants like this one.