The whole of humanity is one big family but somehow, over time, we have lost that connection with one another. Our struggle for individual survival has taught us to draw a circle of 'me and my' around us and we consider only certain people, places and things as our own. By the very design of this paradigm, the rest of the people, places and things in this world fall outside this circle of love and compassion.

And, in this societal race of securing more resources for ourselves and our loved ones, most of us have forgotten our relationship with one another at large. There are some of us that have fallen out of everybody's circle of 'my' or have been left too far behind in the race to survive. This project is an attempt to connect back, re-discover our relationship with and understand our responsibility towards the larger family that we are a part of -- the rest of our human family. Hence, it is titled 'Rest of My Family'.

We, Piyush Goswami (documentary Photographer/filmmaker) and Akshatha Shetty (writer/journalist), have been travelling for a few years into the heart of rural India understanding, experiencing and documenting different cultures, social issues and common challenges faced by the people all across the country.

4-5 years of travelling, meeting people, living with different communities and documenting our experiences and stories along the way have given us a great deal of clarity on the current social scenarios (ranging from lack of infrastructure, poor sanitation, education, water, electricity, female infanticide, untouchability, etc) and on how our creative tools could be used effectively to address and tackle these issues.

So far, throughout our journey, we wished to tell stories of those who were forgotten; be the voice for those nameless faces. But as we got deeper into the lives of different people and began understanding fundamentally the issues they were facing, we learnt a valuable lesson.

Although our hearts were in the right place and we were passionate about documenting and sharing their stories with as many people as possible, we realised that this alone added no practical value to their lives. Merely documenting about their lives and sharing their story wasn't enough!

More than often, these people feel used by us urban folks who approach them with fancy gadgets, cameras and laptops. They are faced with empty promises and have therefore lost their faith in humanity. Hence, so far we have been doing whatever little we could do from our end to help these people out. This was our way of restoring their faith in humanity; of giving them hope and in the process encouraging people to come out with their stories. 

But we realised that we still needed to do something more substantial.

Drive For Change

With this understanding in mind, we now aim to start 'Rest Of My Family' with its first campaign #DriveForChange. As a part of the first leg of this campaign we will embark on a drive through different regions of India non-stop for an entire year. 

Through this journey, we will focus on highlighting the social issues and human interest stories, documenting the triumphs of the ordinary man despite all the hardships they face constantly, and help these stories reach a larger audience and wherever necessary raise funds through fund raisers and crowd funding campaigns to extend necessary support to the individuals and communities that we write about.

We hope to connect the ones who need help to the ones who can help.

Throughout the drive, we will maintain and share day-to-day journals of our journey, encounters, experiences, challenges, all our high(s) and low(s)  with absolute sincerity and honesty on various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Wordpress under #driveforchange campaign.

By doing this, we will document our own emotional and spiritual experiences and evolution as we go on this journey.

Apart from that, photo essays and short documentary films/videos depicting our journey and lives of particular groups of individuals or communities will be published in a timely manner.

There are many Organisations that raise funds for different causes. For example, funds to end child labour, funds for education, funds for women empowerment, funds for farmers rights etc. But these funds don't necessarily trickle down to the specific individuals whose life stories brought about an awareness in the public space to begin with.

Hence, through 'Rest Of My Family' and 'Drive For Change', we hope to make a direct impact to the lives of those people we meet and document about suffering due to various social issues.

Whether it is an individual or an entire community, whether it is lack of food, water, education, electricity, medical facilities, sanitation or just pure indifference. We take it as our responsibility to not just document these stories and situations, but also take appropriate measures to make a positive impact to these lives by raising funds and in collaboration with various local, national and international organisations providing necessary support to these communities, while personally making sure that these funds don't get misused along the way. 

Rest Of My Family will continue year-after-year for the rest of our lives. At the end of one year, after driving through different regions of the country as a part of #DriveForChange campaign, we will come out with a detailed photo journal book capturing our entire journey, triumphs, challenges and meaningful stories that restored faith in humanity along the way. This is apart from all the successful awareness and crowd funding campaigns we run together with mini documentaries, photo stories and a day-to-day journal released throughout the year.

This project is not restricted to any particular artistic medium and will adopt a multi-disciplinary approach with respect to collaboration. As the project develops we will come together with visual artists, musicians, painters, etc to create a diverse and interactive product that will enable us to narrate the stories we wish to share better. More information on these collaborations will be shared as the campaign develops.

HOW CAN YOU HELP US?

'Rest Of My Family' is a project for the community, and there's no better way to start this effort than with the support of the community. We believe that there is no such thing as a self-made individual. We are all made of thousands and millions of other people who directly or indirectly have influenced and shaped our lives. We have come so far in our journey with the love and support of a lot of people, and now we need your help to start this life-long social impact-through-art project.

We need your help to start and sustain #DriveForChange campaign through one year which will help us build a foundation for this kind of 'direct-action' based social work/reportage/documentation that we wish to continue to grow by bringing on board and organising like-minded socially active individuals and artists for 'Rest Of My Family' and continuing to connect with rest of our human family for the rest of our lives.

WHAT WE NEED

Overall Requirement: 30,000 USD

Now that we are setting out on a life time mission -- not just to document, but to undertake developmental work as well. We want to do it right, with the necessary things in place. This will allow us to be more efficient with our efforts and focus more of our energy towards our work. The funds will also enable us to sustain the project uninterrupted for an entire year, which will allow us to continue with 'Rest Of My Family' thereafter. 

The budget split-up is as follows:

1. Video Editor's Cost

Since we will be working out of different locations and travelling throughout the year, we will keep sending raw footage of our work to the editor regularly. This will help us churn out mini-documentaries and short videos in a timely manner. 

2. Web hosting/Database Management

We wish to be able to maintain and have a dedicated portal for the project. This will help us put an efficient system in place that will optimise content management and archival system, and help us keep a track of our campaigns.

3. Project Vehicle (A Second hand SUV Car) and Fuel

So far, we have been travelling using the local public modes of transport with our resources and documenting human interest stories and social issues. Over time, even though travelling in the local rickshaws, buses, and trains has added a unique beautiful flavour to our experiences, we have also realised the limitations and constraints of such travel with all our bags, camera kits, tripods, laptops on our backs especially when we have to get involved with communities and have to move around to get things done. 

For instance, we have been in numerous situations wherein we had to cut our trip to a village short simply because the last bus to the neighbouring town was at 5 pm OR there's no local transport connecting a particular village to the bus station in the district. The limitations and restrictions imposed on our journey and work, as a result, have had an undermining effect on our entire process.

Having a vehicle will give us a space to work and live out of, while adding to our freedom of movement. The funds will also enable us to manage fuel and maintenance costs throughout the project for an entire year. The car will become our project central on the move -- a space that will allow us to tune out of our changing environment and carry out our operations smoothly. 

4. Food and Accommodation

Although, we will spend most of our time being on the move and staying with different communities, there will be times when we have to take up rooms as and when necessary. The funds received will help us take care of all such costs that have to borne every month including food.

5. Indiegogo Fees

At least 6 to 9 percent of the campaign costs will be deducted as fees which will be taken care of with the funds raised.

6. Memory/Storage Device

We will require at least 8 to 10 TB of storage space in order to efficiently manage all the raw footage and photographs taken throughout the year. Due to patchy connectivity through out rural areas, using cloud storage is not an option for us. 

OTHER WAYS YOU CAN HELP

• If you cannot contribute, no problem! Share our campaign with your friends and family.

• Connect us to supporters or other like-minded people who will be able to contribute to the campaign!

• Spread the word about the Project 'Rest of My family' (#restofmyfamily) and the #driveforchange campaign on all social media.

• Stay connected. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Wordpress to stay up-to-date on the campaign.

1. Piyush Goswami

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Born in a small town in Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, for the first 10 years of my life I studied in a Hindi medium school, and in 1996 I came to Bangalore and continued my education in English medium. The switch from an all Hindi educational system to an English one wasn't easy. But in a year's time I adjusted myself to this new paradigm and went on to finish my schooling after which I joined National Institute of Technology, Surathkal in 2004 to pursue my bachelors degree in Mechanical engineering.

In 2008, after my graduation I joined Oracle and worked there for one year and eighth months. But soon I realised that purpose of my life lay else where, and after much deliberation I concluded that I wanted to dedicate my life to art and philosophy and explore both of them with absolute sincerity and honesty. Over the last few years, I have understood how these two media can efficiently come together in form of socially relevant positive action. 2010 was a turning point in my life.

Between 2010 and 2012, I dedicated myself to understanding the craft of photography and storytelling through photo essays. Since then, I have had the opportunity to document some meaningful social/cultural/human interest stories.

In 2013, I wrapped up my apartment, gave away most of what I owned so I could dedicate all my time to travelling into some of the most remote regions in rural India in order to understand the most effective ways in which I could do socially relevant work with my strengths and tools. As a result of this move, I was able to deeply observe issues plaguing our society today, challenges faced by the common man and the existing gaps in our current social welfare efforts that I could fill with my skills. Over the last few years, I have been fortunate to experience, understand and document situations like continuing female infanticide, racism, child labour, dying traditions, fading tribal and indigenous cultures, religious mechanism of Hinduism that have shaped and continue to shape India as we see today. My purpose in life now is to put together and connect our increasingly fragmented and shattered world through my social work-through-art efforts.

2. Akshatha Shetty

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I am an Electrical and Electronics Engineer by academic qualification. After graduating from National Institute of Technology, Karnataka in 2008, I worked as a Systems Engineer with Infosys Technology Limited for about two years. I worked in technical support assimilating everything that the IT industry had to offer. However, over a period of time, I realised that I did not belong in the corporate world. So, I decided to quit my job and take the plunge to do something that I am really passionate about.

I wished to live a life dedicated to exploring writing as a medium of expression. And, that is how my tryst with journalism began. I joined The New Indian Express, Bangalore in 2010.  As a Sub-Editor/Reporter in City Express (feature supplement), I have had the opportunity to cover various lifestyle segments including music, dance and theatre, visual arts and cinema, literature, travel and human interest stories. Undoubtedly, this field has provided me a platform to not only voice my opinions and nurture my own individuality but also connect with people on a deeper level. 

In 2013, I quit The New Indian Express and along with Piyush decided to travel all across rural India to get a fundamental understanding of issues plaguing the society today. Through my writings, I wish to share the profundity of our journey while documenting and shedding light on the fundamental social problems. 

LINKS TO SOME OF OUR WORKS