Geoffrey Kwame Buta, a photojournalist with the New Times Corporation (NTC), has been nominated for the 2025 Joy FM Impact Makers Award in the Education category.

Mr Buta, who is also the founder of Foto4Change, was recognised for his efforts in empowering Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) students through visual storytelling.

His initiative, launched in 2023, trains students in pho­tography and multimedia pro­duction to help them express themselves and document their experiences.

Since its implementation, the initiative has donated five professional cameras and ac­cessories to five institutions in Ghana and Zimbabwe. These cameras are used to train DHH beneficiaries in visual story­telling, giving them practical tools to develop creative and technical skills.

Explaining the initiative, Mr Buta said it was born out of a clear gap he observed in the creative communication space. “Deaf individuals are often left behind and excluded from opportunities in visual story­telling and media,” he noted.

“As a visual journalist and multimedia educator, I believe this gap can be addressed by using my professional skills to empower the deaf community through photography and visu­al storytelling,” he underlined.

During the maiden donation and training session, at the Savelugu School for the Deaf, Mr Buta noted that he was impressed by the brilliance and creativity of the students. “Their enthusiasm and poten­tial inspired me to expand the initiative to other schools and eventually to Zimbabwe, in collaboration with the Deaf Zimbabwe Trust,” he added.

To date, the purchase of cameras and accessories has been fully self-funded through consultancy fees earned from client work. “This personal investment reflects my com­mitment to creating inclusive platforms for underrepre­sented voices in media,” he mentioned.

The Visual Storytelling for the Deaf project has so far benefited over 700 students. It has established visual story­telling clubs in five schools for the deaf and supported deaf students studying Mass Com­munication at Harare Polytech­nic in Zimbabwe.

Moreover, Mr Buta stated that Foto4Change was planning a public exhibition to show­case the best works produced by the students from Ghana and Zimbabwe.

The exhibition aims to pro­mote awareness, celebrate the students’ creativity, and build their confidence for future professional opportunities.

To ensure long-term im­pact, the initiative is also engaging media organisations to consider internship and employment opportunities for hearing-impaired trainees. “We want society to see them not as charity cases, but as capable professionals,” he pointed out.

He is also planning to es­tablish a studio in one of the schools to train the beneficia­ry students who are interest­ed in studio photography.

With more than a decade of experience in development communication, Mr Buta is a three-time Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Photojour­nalist of the Year. He has also received the Reuters People’s Choice Award and the Deut­sche Welle Human Rights Photography Award.

 By Spectator Reporter