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MICHAEL HAERTLEIN

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UNICEF

I had the incredible experience of traveling to Somaliland and India as the director of photography for a UNICEF campaign focusing on their polio eradication efforts. It was a skeletal crew of extremely talented and resourceful people that made powerful bonds with one another. 

We shot with multiple nomadic groups, a UNHCR refugee community, children that live and work picking trash, and enslaved people that live and work in brick kilns. We off-roaded through a Somali mine field and wrangled disinterested camels on several occasions. It was emotionally challenging and physically crushing, but I'm very proud of what we were able to accomplish. I was most proud of the efforts of the UNICEF polio vaccination teams on the ground. In more than one instance, we would spot a nomadic family in the distance. When we approached them to offer a polio vaccination, they had already been vaccinated. 

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