Johanna Warwick used her passion for photography to raise funds and awareness

Having spent 8 months prior to her trip with other youth researching and learning about El Salvador, Johanna thought she would be completely prepared. Despite those efforts, she was still overwhelmed. Says Johanna, `It was an eye opening experience to see a country and its people's sufferingfirst hand.We all knowthere are people living in poverty across the world, but to see it first hand was difficult.When I came home it was very hard to return to daily life here having seen first hand how millions of others are living. It was impossible to come home and not try to find a way to help.

What began as a hobby for Johanna, has turned into a full-time passion and pursuit. She is now studying photography at a graduate level after her eye-opening trip to El Salvador. You can see Johanna's work at www.johannawarwick.com.

After traveling to El Salvador, Johanna knew she wanted to try and raise money and help in any way that she could. `I didn't feel that personally being there I was able to make a difference, I felt the best way to help was byproviding money for education to promote change. So, it seemed the best way for me to help and raise money/awareness was by using the skills I have. I started selling the photographs with all of the funds raised going back to El Salvador.

Johanna found the response to her work very encouraging. She sold all of her prints and ended up taking more orders. She says `I think people loved the images and were inspired to buy them as it was [a] way they could help too.

Johanna also says the most important lesson she learned from this fundraising experience was to use a skill you already have. `It was great that I went to El Salvador and tookthe photographs to then raise money - buthad I not had the opportunity to travel to El Salvador, Istill think I could havetaken photographs of something that I felt inspiredby to sell for fundraising. She goes on to say that `We don't alwaysneed to do something grand to make a difference, we can do something really small that can still make just as big or even bigger impact. In the end, it was very easy to do and I think many others could do something similar. Find a community or place to sell something/offer a service that is unique to you and donate the funds. When people know the money will be going to somewhere to help people, they are often inspired by what you are doing to do something themselves.