Click here to donate to Faces of Hope Fund

A percentage of the proceeds from my book Learning to Breathe, which chronicles my devastating accident and recovery, will be going to help this clinic. Once the clinic is established the Faces of Hope Fund will continue to work with community organizations and NGOs to help provide health care and education in Asia and Afghanistan. The needs run deep and all donated money will go directly to the projects. It isn’t right that where you are born will determine how you will die. If you would like to help please donate.

Every tax-deductible dollar you give will help support a life or help educate a child. Your help will provide health care and education in Asia and Afghanistan by working through NGOs and established community organizations. For updates on current projects please view the website.

The tax-deductible Faces of Hope Fund works with Non-Governmental Organizations and established community organizations to provide fundamental health care and education to children and their communities in Asia and Afghanistan.

I have spent a lifetime traveling the world in an attempt to capture the universal human spirit through my photographs. I have been greatly influenced by my years of living among the Buddhist cultures of Asia and my more recent work in Afghanistan. On January 2, 2000 my life was nearly cut short during a horrific bus accident on a remote jungle road in Laos. Suffering from massive internal injuries and multiple broken bones, I was saved by a small group of determined people working in a rural clinic in the town of Kasi, with no resources, not even beds. I nearly died on a plank of wood.

A young man sewed up my shredded arm with a needle and thread; no anesthesia or even the most basic of painkillers were available. When I returned seven years later to visit this clinic, the outpouring of love and concern for my well-being was heart-wrenching. The doctor, who speaks no English, remembered the one word, “oxygen” I kept repeating that day, as I struggled with collapsed lungs and diaphragm. I left with the promise that I would return with at least a giant canister of oxygen for them.

I will never forget that I am here to today because of the kindness of these strangers. This experience has become a daily touchstone for me and motivates my work as I continue to travel all corners of the globe photographing endangered cultures and documenting issues concerning the human condition.

One of the initial projects of the Faces of Hope Fund is to partner with the non-profit organization Doctor to Doctor (www.d2d.org) to help provide medical training and equipment for the Kasi Clinic in Laos. There are no medical resources for the Laotian people along the road from Luang Prabang to Vientiane, a ten hour drive. The staff at the Kasi clinic have to drive five hours to Vientiane just to photocopy the medical charts of their patients. In November I will accompany a group of doctors to bring basic medical supplies such as needles, bandages, antibiotics, and prescription drugs. They will assess the clinic’s request for medical equipment such as delivery beds for women, an X-ray machine, and a dental unit. We have even arranged for a doctor who is willing to stay on for six months to a year to help with medical training.

Online giving is safe and easier than ever; however, if you would prefer to send your donation by mail, please send using this address:

Tides Foundation

Attn: Ruth Bender

PO Box 29903

San Francisco, CA 94129

For UPS, FedEx, etc.

Tides Foundation

Presidio Bldg. 1014

San Francisco, CA 94129

The Faces of Hope Fund (#1804) is housed through the Tides Foundation so please make the checks out to “Tides Foundation” with a notation on the memo line that it’s for the “Faces of Hope Fund,” (#1804) on the check. All donations are tax-deductible.