During the lockdown of March 2020, the beautiful sites at Hammersmith Community Gardens Association were closed, and greatly missed by the local community.
I brought the sites to the community by producing two social videos, Beauty and Calm at Phoenix Farm and the below video at the Ravenscourt Park Glasshouses.
Image credit: Julian Wall for Age UK Camden
When the pandemic hit, I worked with Age UK Camden to ensure older people in Camden were supported with food, prescriptions, and someone to talk to regularly.
I produced this social video to raise money for this vital work.
I also worked with the team to edit and produce video content, including this social video featuring Kier Starmer which gained over 30,000 views.
I also supported Time to Talk Befriending with their efforts in supporting older people in Brighton and Hove.
I worked with a local filmmaker to edit this video about the organisation and the below video on their Covid-19 response.
During the lockdown of March 2020, the beautiful sites at Hammersmith Community Gardens Association were closed, and greatly missed by the local community.
I brought the sites to the community by producing two social videos, Beauty and Calm at Phoenix Farm and the below video at the Ravenscourt Park Glasshouses.
I spent 6 weeks in Costa Rica making a collaborative documentary about Far Corners Community Theatre Company - the people making theatre in the cloud forest.
Read MoreI met and interview 9 older activists in Camden to make a case for the continuation of the ‘Older People’s Advisory Group’
Read MoreI met the Traditional Birth Attendants who live and work in villages in Southern Rajasthan where they perform deliveries and care for thousands of pregnant women. TBAs provide safe and hygienic home births, and when necessary encourage women to deliver at hospitals, accompanying them throughout the arduous multi-hour journey, handle medical complications that arise en route, and are key advocates for mothers in overcrowded and bureaucratic public hospitals.
Read MoreI wrote, shot and edited this short film on the friendship between 20-year-old Jordan and 92-year-old Bob. Sadly, Bob passed away in 2018. This film is dedicated to his memory, and to the friendship that brought him so much happiness in his final years.
Time to Talk Befriending is an award winning intergenerational befriending organisation. It was founded in response to research undertaken with older people in Brighton, who said “I thought I was invisible’’, “Before coming here, I hadn’t spoken to anyone in weeks”, “I just want to see a friendly face – for someone to visit me at home”. Time to Talk tackles loneliness through befriending, and running events that bring the generations together.
“From the moment Lydia approached me to offer her services as a film maker I knew that I had been blessed! This can be clearly evidenced through the beautiful film she produced about the relationship between Bob and Jordan. Throughout the process Lydia worked sensitively, professionally and respectfully. I can genuinely say that Lydia is an inspiring, talented and intelligent young lady who is motivated to work alongside like-minded people/organisations to tackle issues of social injustice.”
Phoenix is a one-acre community farm in the White City Estate, West London. New development now threatens this treasured community space.
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I worked with refugees, asylum seekers and grass-roots activists to build a collection of stories changing the narrative around people seeking asylum.
Read MoreDuring the lockdown of March 2020, the beautiful sites at Hammersmith Community Gardens Association were closed, and greatly missed by the local community.
I was commissioned to video and record the sites, bringing them to the community online.
Ageing Better: a multimedia project telling the stories of older people from Middlesborough to the Isle of Wight
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Older people in Camden explain how Age UK Camden has been a lifeline to them.
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Working with senior management, front-line staff, and refugees and asylum seekers, I compiled, wrote, edited and photographed for several Annual Reports for the Refugee Council.
Read MoreAgeing Better in Camden is a partnership of older people and Camden organisations, working together to tackle social isolation and loneliness by drawing on existing skills and resources in the local community. It is one of the fourteen National Lottery Community Fund Ageing Better programmes, working across England.
I redesigned the Ageing Better in Camden website to make the user experience friendlier for a range of audiences.
Explore the website here: www.ageingbetterincamden.org.uk
Civil Society Futures was an independent inquiry that ran from 2017-2018, a national conversation about how English civil society can flourish in a fast changing world.
Through community events, academic research and online debate, Civil Society Futures created a space for a much needed conversation among those involved in all forms of civic action – from informal networks to vast charities, Facebook groups to faith groups.
I produced a series of short films and turned a 68-page report into a dynamic multi-media website. The site reached new, diverse audiences and was read by over 4,000 people.
The inquiry was funded by Baring Foundation, Esmee Fairbairn, Barrow Cadbury, Paul Hamlyn, Lloyds Bank Foundation, City Bridge Trust, Lankelly Chase and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Research support was also provided by NCVO.
Age UK Camden is an independent charity that helps older people to stay active, stay connected and get the most out of life. They've been working in the local community for 50 years delivering high quality, innovative services and activities for older people in the borough.
I was commissioned to produce photographs for Age UK Camden’s Annual General Meeting, and the retirement celebration for Gary Jones, the dedicated Chief Executive.
The majority of rural residents with whom Seva Mandir works rely on subsistence agriculture in a region where the challenges of weather extremes, soil degradation, and uncontested encroachment on common lands are intensifying and exerting a negative pressure on livelihoods.
Over the last 35 years, Seva Mandir has helped protect and manage roughly 8,000 acres of common lands, develop sustainable watersheds
for 6,000 families and enable another 10,000 farmers to improve their agricultural yields. The effort has been to balance economic gains with environmental concerns.
I visited this village on World Environment Day to capture the people raising awareness of environmental issues through a march staged in the village.
By training local tour guides to run Delwara Heritage Walks, Seva Mandir support local people to safeguard the unique heritage of the “town of the gods” and as a source of income generation.
As part of my work with Seva Mandir, I took part in a Delwara Heritage Tour, capturing images to market the enterprise.
Seva Mandir are a development organisation working in rural Rajasthan, supporting communities to come together to improve their health, education and financial prospects. As part of this work, Seva Mandir developed Delwara Heritage and Community Walks.
Seva Mandir and all of the educational opportunities they offer for children in rural Northern India.
Read MoreAlongside Ryshel Patel and Javi Tomas, I co-wrote and directed, and co-edited this film as part of my MA Media Practice for Development and Social Change at the University of Sussex. The film was awarded a distinction. As well as this, we are proud that the film can support the campaign to restore this local treasure.
See the full multi-media site at Tales of the Terraces.
Madeira Terrace is a Grade II listed, 850 metre set of arches on the Brighton seafront. When the arches fell into disrepair, the local community burst into action to prevent this treasured space from being lost forever. Eventually, local campaigners raised enough support and funds to begin the restoration of this unique Victorian feature.
I had the pleasure of meeting community groups around London who are tackling loneliness among older people. Through theatre, creative writing, exercise classes and grassroots campaigning, these organisations put older people in the lead and bring people together to make a positive change.
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