Yashar

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

Worldwide | Sunday, November 6, 2011 | flickr photos

My name is Yashar, but if ‘Yash’ is easier, please feel free.

I was born in Iran, raised in Canada, and today I’m world citizen. The world is my country; having been fortunate enough to visit over twenty-five nations in the last five years, I quickly realized how incredibly ‘the same’ we all are.

Most of the places I have been to have been heavily impoverished or in a state of conflict. For over a year now I’ve been living in a place that is both: a township. I’ve dwelled in shacks, had my puppy stolen, overcame an attempted break-in while still inside (two nights ago, actually), and had friends assassinated in rooms I used to sleep in. I’m not special; such is the day to day for us living in Cape Town’s forgotten communities.

I live here in order to establish unique empowerment initiatives for at-risk youth in a pure, respectful, and effective way. In the past, I have used the power of photography to induce raising awareness about the plight of vulnerable members of global community, from the photos you’ll see in this application, to the ones I and sixty-odd Filipino children took in the slum of Navotas weeks after the devastating typhoons of 2009, resulting in gaining enough international support to build an educational computer centre in the heart of the slum, built for the youth, by the youth.

This is why I Love photography.

I'm passionate about this scholarship because I want to be enabled to pursue selfless, empowering photographic initiatives in a more informed, skilled, powerful, and creative way. Thankful to know that I have a world to learn, I remain hungry for knowledge for one reason, and one reason only: utilizing it towards doing more for the most marginalized members of our global community.