LIG Medical Mission, Vikarabad, India from Jaka Vinsek on Vimeo.
In November 2014, I joined an amazing group of doctors and nurses that helps educate and train medical staff around the world, mostly in areas with few resources. They all volunteer under the non-for-profit “LIG Global Foundation” and share their experience from their home hospitals in the USA, The Philippines and India, among others.
My first assignment took me to India, to a small village called Vikarabad, west of Hyderabad. I closely observed many surgical procedures like, uterus removals, various laparoscopic gynecological surgeries and a Cesarean Section. I watched doctors give checkups and electrocardiograms for rheumatic heart disease to over 1000 kids in a village boarding school for impoverished families. I’ve seen first-hand how important it is for nurses to have a routine for every surgery. And I’ve also seen how little is needed to put a big smile on kids’ faces when we replaced their everyday meals with some simple but new dishes.
I will be following them around the globe in the next year in order to share the amazing work that they do, starting with missions in Peru and Grenada in the spring of 2015
Jaka Vinšek is a Slovenian-born photographer currently living in Brooklyn, New York. He started practicing photography at a very young age and at 22 he became a personal photographer to the president of Slovenia, traveling around the world with him . When Jaka asked his first employer for a camera bag, he responded that a camera isn’t meant to be carried in a bag, it’s meant to be around the neck. This valuable advice sparked Jaka’s passion for street photography and capturing the everyday, spontaneous moments that most people miss. In addition to photographing for Slovenian newspapers and magazines , he has also worked as a stringer for Reuters and Associated Press, among other agencies.
After moving to the United States, he began working as a cinematographer on a full-length documentary, “The American Nurse Project,” which was screened in theaters nationally. He became fascinated by the intimate moments that he experienced and continues seeking them out today. In 2015 he will continue working with the LIG Global Foundation project on their medical missions and he will be starting a new full-length documentary about end-of-life experiences.
