I noticed Leah Giesler following me on Twitter, and visiting her website I found a young woman from Philadelphia undertaking a wonderful project - traveling across South America taking photographs for 25 non-profit organizations while she's 25 years old. I'm pleased to present a selection from her series in Colombia.

"The 25twenty-five Project is a long-term, online, documentary photo series telling stories across and about South America. I am creating a space to re-imagine this continent by combining poignant photo essays about 25 non-profit organizations along side of other contextual cultural observations, posted to a bilingual website.

My motivation for the 25twenty-five Project comes from my interest in finding creative, effective forms to adapt the way we Westerners look at others around the world. After completing a project working to this end with images from India, I wanted to move onto a new challenge and tackle the misunderstood and under-imagined continent of South America. So, I created the 25twenty-five Project in order to educate and engage audiences over the course of one year and ask the question, how much do North Americans really know about this 'other America'?

By consistently posting these works to the 25twenty-five bilingual website over the span of one year, I will be gradually illustrating more positive parts of these countries and creating a dialog that travels between the two Americas. So many of us North Americans lack relation and consideration to the countries and people of South America. And often, when we have no information to go off in imagining this place, we rely on the negative information we do have. Through this project, I will be gradually building a new (and more positive) relationship between both North and South American audiences."

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Basic pediatric exam, Corporación Condor, Providencia © Leah Giesler