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About this project

Pick a Pocket is a group of friends who decided to use our art to help people escape from extreme poverty. As photographers, musicians, and artists, we want to further merge these mediums with the message of social justice and passion for the world's poor. We hope to connect the world's poorest people and new generations of activists who want to help make a world a better place. Together, as friends and part of a larger movement, we want to see lives redeemed by new found understandings of generosity and initiative. And we'll make some pretty rad things along the way! The first of which is our brand-spanking new book. What type of book, you inquire? Well, let me give you a preview!

In January, Pick a Pocket sent two teams to Ethiopia, India, Bangladesh, Kenya, and Nepal. Over thirty young people eager to confront poverty and comfort people wrote down their experiences and documented what they saw with their cameras. But this wasn’t simply a feel-good, Third World adventure trip. Pick a Pocket’s mission is to help people out of extreme poverty with personalized projects and active advocacy for the global anti-poverty movement.

During our time in Ethiopia, we started three projects we want to share with the world. In Garbage City, extremely poor young boys and girls eke a meager living out of a trash dump. We established a refuge for them outside the trash where they can study English, learn handcrafts, and take care of their hygiene. The Rahab Project is microfinance at work. We distribute small businesses grants to help young women escape lives of exploitation and build a new future. Drawn From Water is a home that provides a refuge for Ethiopian children that were targeted for infanticide due to tribal superstitions. Our friends continue to live in the village, trying to stop this violent practice.

In Kenya, we are partnering with a former schoolteacher who has built a school for Mombaasa’s street children. We want to see her activism lead to a commitment from the surrounding community to help shelter and educate them.

In Mumbai, India, we are helping a woman establish a secondhand shop that would serve as a new incarnation of the Rahab Project. The secondhand shop will be a place for women who want to find employment outside of the red-light district. Also, we are helping a group that engages with homeless street children, ministering to their needs several times a week with education and hygiene services.

These projects came to life as the result of our team’s passion to change the world and will continue to thrive and expand as we invite others to join our efforts. The photographs and the stories must be told. With our book, we will tour the United States to challenge today’s generation to get involved and contribute in whatever way they are called.

However, we can’t publish this amazing book without your help. Pick a Pocket team members live off monthly support from partners that want to see our work accomplished. Our funds cover housing, food, and transportation expenses as we seek people to help. The book may seem like a large, ambitious project, but it will open up doors to publicize our work through many other media outlets. Your donation will help tell these people’s stories and bring more people into the campaign against injustice.

Check us out on myspace and be our friend, we'd love to hear from you!
http://www.myspace.com/pickapockettour

**exclaimer: incentives will not be sent out until the 90 days of pledging is complete

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