2017 Photo Contest
Meet Sarai Villa Pacheco our 2017 Photo Contest Winner
Hi, my name is Sarai Villa Pacheco. I am 25 years old, I live in Mexico City and I am a graphic designer.
I work at World Vision as Audiovisual Products Coordinator. I started as an intern for 6 months, then I was hired as graphic designer in fundraising area; two years later I was WV Mexico Branding Coordinator and it has been a year since I am in the Audiovisual Products position.
In college, I enjoyed taking pictures and creating videos, but it was not until I entered World Vision that this love for photography grew. Showing the reality and changing the lives of the most vulnerable people in my country changed my way of thinking and showed me a reality that I knew existed, but I did not know how to get involved.
Currently, I tell stories of transformation: children, families and communities changing their own lives hand in hand with World Vision. This is what I love about my job: to work with people so passionate to help others; to be able to listen, live and see at first hand this development stories and to know that I serve other people through my work… that inspires me.
My Take On Poverty
We can see poverty through many forms: you can see it in a dirty pond where children look for water to drink; you can see it in the face of a sick woman without access to medications; you can see it in the empty hands of a parent who returns home with no food… in my work at World Vision Mexico I have seen the different variants of poverty that go beyond economic problems; where the rights and dignity of people are violated and their abilities to get ahead are questioned. I believe that the best way to a world free of child poverty is to listen to the families and community’s needs and to work together with them.
I can give the example of the Salas family, they live in a marginalized community of the Sierra de Veracruz in Mexico, who was given seeds to plant intercropping fruit orchards such as apples, peaches and berries. The crop has provided them with food and has helped them to get ahead economically. “With the money we got by selling the fruit, my wife was able to pay me a doctor and medicines when I became seriously ill”, said to me Mr. Salas with a smile upon his face. Before they planted the intercropping orchard, the Salas Family had corn crops, but they were unaware that this land could wash away with heavy rains and that it was best to intercrop it with fruit trees to prevent that from happening. This real story is an example of teamwork: on one hand there is a family with the land and the skills to cultivate crops and, on the other hand, there is an organization that trusts on the skills of the people and accompanies them in the learning process, both combined give the result of the well-being of the family for this and the next generations.
The Salas family trusted World Vision to accompany them in their crops, but more importantly, the Salas family trusted in their future and that they could provide a better life for their children with their own hands. For people to transform their lives based on their own talents is the goal of development.
Follow me on Instagram: @sarietai
