Haiti and Media Making Changed my Life!

Submitted By: Rose Aquino

Location: Florida, USA

Before my 11th birthday, my parents got divorced, my grandfather took his own life and I had a life-threatening heart condition and had to have an 8-hour heart surgery. When I was 11, I started feeling depressed and hopeless. I was unmotivated and frustrated. I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress and severe depression. After a month in a residential mental health facility and a year of therapy, I got better and started to see the world in a more positive way. I got interested in photography and starting taking pictures when I would travel with my mom to Haiti to support her nonprofit organization Haiti Ocean Project. Through Haiti Ocean Project, I became involved with Adobe Youth Voices, and that is when I took an interest in media making.

My mom bought me an underwater digital camera for my birthday. I brought it with me to Haiti on every trip. I took photos and videos of everything that caught my attention. I fell in love with the agility of a dolphin, the beauty of a sunset and the smile on a Haitian kid’s face. I started sending pictures from Haiti to all my friends and family. I helped build the Haiti Ocean Project website (www.haitioceanproject.net) and included some of my pictures and videos on the website. Media making is telling a story and that is what I do with my pictures and video. One day, we were out on the boat in Haiti and we were surrounded by at least 40 pantropical spotted dolphins. They were not jumping like they usually do, but were picking up their heads a little above the water and then going under for a few minutes. The water around them was dirty and full of pieces of fish. I filmed these dolphins for an hour from the side of the boat. I would have gone underwater and filmed them, but the water was too murky and I didn’t want to disturb them. Later that day, when we got back to shore, I watched all the video I took and realize that I was telling a story of what these dolphins were eating, and how the adult dolphins helped feed the younger dolphins and what their behaviors were like. I have sent this video to many marine biologists who have been interested in our dolphins. This made me feel valuable, like I was contributing to something important, scientific research of dolphins. And I did this all with videos that I took on a small digital camera.

I feel that media making has made a big difference in my life – it has made me happier and more confident and know my importance. And that is something to feel good about!