Photojournalists document medical, veterinary mission work

On a Mission

Camelia Montoy working. Photo by Kristopher Radder.

The Point

Fall 2012

Camelia Montoy and Kristopher Radder will long remember the summer of 2012.

The two Point Park photojournalists spent several months serving with public affairs teams that documented medical and veterinary care mission work in southeast Asia through Pacific Partnership.

Montoy, a senior photojournalism major, served with World Vets, one of many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that partnered with the U.S. military for the veterinary care mission. A typical day involved photographing the work of a team of vets as they embarked at various island ports to conduct vaccinations, treatments, examinations and consultations, said Montoy.

For example, "In the Philippines we treated dogs, cats, pigs, carabao (Filipino water buffalo), homing pigeons, chickens and monkeys…I photographed life-changing and life-saving surgeries, and every day I learned something new about animal and human health and medicine." She enjoyed the environment of ongoing education. "You never know what's going to happen on site or on the ship, and you have to be prepared to grab your gear and go at any moment to get a story."

Kristopher Radder, a graduate student and media specialist at Point Park, served his third mission as a Project HOPE volunteer, having previously traveled to Guyana and Suriname in 2010 and Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Tonga and Vanuatu in 2011. Radder was a public affairs officer with the Pacific Partnership 2012 team. He photographed and blogged about the work of the HOPE medical volunteers throughout a four-month mission to the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam.

"It was an amazing experience," said Radder, who photographed teams performing cleft palate surgeries for children and other life-changing and life-saving medical procedures. He said it was very rewarding to experience the warmth and respect extended to the medical teams by people in the local communities.

To read more about Radder's experience and see more photographs from the mission, visit the Project HOPE In the Field blog at www.projecthope.org/news-blogs/In-the-Field-blog/

Text by Cheryl Valyo

Photo of Kristopher Radder working by Camelia Montoy.

The Point is a magazine for alumni and friends of Point Park University.