Web Wednesday: Dog Meets World

Carolyn Lane, founder of dogmeetsworld.org, has created an interesting website with an interesting purpose -- to lift the hearts of underprivileged kids and others by having travelers take photos of them with a little stuffed dog mascot, named Foto, and printing out a hard copy to give them on the spot. The goal is to help the subjects, who may have never seen a photo of themselves, 'see their potential more clearly and that they count.'

According to Carolyn,

My dream is to establish a movement to photograph the children of the world. To seek children in their own settings, print their image to keep for a lifetime. We have replicated Foto, the stuffed dog, to enable scores of world travelers to participate with this intentional project. The dream of Dog Meets World is to empower travelers to make real connections to people in other cultures, in essence to become photo-diplomats. A picture makes anybody a “somebody”. Dog Meets World clothes people in acknowledgment and affirmation and feeds their souls, which indeed is priceless.

The goal of the website is admirable, though it does cost money to participate, and you need a portable photo printer, not something most people take on vacation. Still, it's worth checking out.