© Laura Ward 

The other week we went to the opening of an exhibition by homeless photographers at the Guardian offices (read more about our work with the Accumulate project here), and wow! These photographers achieved so much in such a short space of time. Everyone in the room had an enormous sense of pride in themselves and this project, and rightly so. This proves that photography can truly change lives.

We congratulated many of the photographers on the evening. One student, Eric has been offered a photography exhibition at his hostel which is really exciting for him. But as great as that is, he’s limited in what he can do because he doesn’t have a camera.

In fact, pretty much every student in this talented group of photographers was relying on equipment borrowed from Accumulate. They were only able to develop their photography skills in the short spaces when the gear was available for them to use.

It occurred to us at Shutter Hub that we have a few old cameras between us, gathering dust and probably not worth very much on eBay. And our members probably have hundreds between them – starter DSLRs that you never got round to selling, compacts that you intended to hand down to someone else but you’re not sure who, even old mobile phones with good camera functions.

What if we donated these old cameras? How many more people like Eric could then have their own camera with which to practise their photography skills? We want people like Eric to keep taking photos. 

So please, please, please have a look in your cupboards, bags and lofts for something that could be donated. For practical reasons we are looking for the whole package so that includes bodies, lenses, chargers, batteries and memory cards too. Even better if you have a little camera bag too.

Think you have something? Brilliant. Get in touch with us here.