We are so overwhelmed by the love and support received from everyone.
Thank you to each and everyone out there for making World Vitiligo Day 2015 so special for all of us. LOVE YOU ALL ... you guys rock. #grateful # blessed #loveauthentic #loveauthenticsa #lovetheauthenticyou #baveeshaphotography #vitiligosa #worldvitiligoday2014 #vitiligo
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THANKS FOR HELPING SPREAD THE WORD FOR WORLD VITILIGO DAY, 25 JUNE 2015 It's been a beautiful journey. Meeting each one of you has been so special . I’m super excited for what lies ahead. LOVEauthentic today is a huge success because of all the love and support from every person out there. Thank you to everyone. Love love love you all. http://www.mjvibe.com/
So amazing, they used our picture for their Front page Slide show. Scroll down to view the article. THANKS FOR HELPING SPREAD THE WORD FOR WORLD VITILIGO DAY, 25 JUNE 2015
I love shooting fellow Vitiligo friends, because there is so much we have in common even before we meet. The connection and calm we feel around each other is so incredible.
After being in a state of depression, he one day switched the TV on and watched a movie called "The Fighting Temptations". Being a religious Christian, a song was sang at the end of the movie which says God still loves me despite the way I look ! He realized that he has his hands, his legs and his eyesight and he’s just like everyone else. That thought alone helped his confidence grow. He began to understand that people stared not because of disgust, but rather because they do not understand and know the condition. He is now comfortable with the way he looks, he gets the general comment that it suits him. His advise to those who are having difficulty living with Vitiligo is to ... love yourself and don't be ashamed by the fact that the colour of your skin is different. Be proud ! You are unique ! You are just as equal as everyone else ! Life is to short and uncertain therefore live life be proud of who you are because that person is Amazing" THANK YOU WAYNE FOR JOINING LOVE AUTHENTIC'S | MY VITILIGO CAMPAIGN
So we took LOVEauthentic to the JHB NEON RUN 2015 last weekend. It was a blast and a half. We painted LOVE signs on all our peeps. Thanks guys for spreading the LOVE. Our tshirts made their appearance again, looked so cool. Got to get more made so all our fans can join in the LOVEauthentic initiative - LOVE THE AUTHENTIC YOU. #loveauthentic #loveauthenticsa #lovetheauthenticyou #neonrun2015 #neonrunjhb #neonrunjhb2015 #baveeshaphotography #marlenephotography #glowinthedark #funtimes Photography by Marlene Photography & Baveesha Photography CLICK ON PICTURE TO VIEW LARGER IMAGES
Photography by Baveesha Photography and Marlene Photography Story by Baveesha Naran Last year October when LOVEauthentic was still just an idea. I went to Durban to meet up with the beautiful Aunt Preshiela. Preshiela Pillay is so empowering, such a beautiful, confident, warm and loving woman. It was such a delightful experience as she and her family were so warm and loving. For a perfect stranger(myself), they prepared the heartiest meal ever. I enjoyed every minute of that amazing spread. Oh how I love it when Durban mums cook. They’re all so brilliant. I could not believe how amazing these people were. We sat and chatted, she told me all about her journey, what it was like growing up with vitiligo, she shared stories from the past, some were hilarious and others were so intense. She also advised me on what products to use for my skin and how to care for my skin in the heat. She tried and tested many products, but Vichy worked best for her. Preshiela Pillay also had Vitiligo her entire life. Before she got married her vitiligo was also patchy and she used to hide it. But when it started appearing on your face and hands, there was nothing more she could do. She could not start covering her hands and blocking her face, she had to be exposed. She told a funny story of how in the Apartheid era, her husband would always be questioned and interrogated by police as they mistook her for a white woman. She also talked about how if she put on her white accent, people would not know any different. It was so cute to hear these stories.
I asked her what advice she would give to people out there: They should not be ashamed of their Vitiligo because they didn’t put it onto themselves. It’s God’s creation. It doesn’t harm anybody else. People should not feel embarrassed because of it. It is not contagious and it’s not a disease. It’s just a skin condition. This is who we are and we should not feel embarrassed about living with Vitiligo. Her final advice was that you should always walk with your head up high. Don’t let anyone put you down, hurt you and make you cry. If you’re struggling at any point tell yourself, that you will be ok one day, and you’ll see you will be. Just be strong, you are not alone. When asked who has been her biggest strength, she advised that she herself was her biggest strength; her strong character and happy personality always helped her stay positive. Thank you Aunt Preshiela for meeting with me, you’re so so amazing. Love you loads, you’re a true inspiration. Thanks for joining our campaign. We totally appreciate it. LOVEauthentic LOVES you. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY Of late I feel grateful that i was gifted with my Vitiligo. The minute I embraced it... it literally changed my life. Today I have LOVEauthentic and am able to help so many people. It's made life so worthwhile...and I love it. We chose each other to be mum and daughter cos we were suppose to get right here. We only have amazing things that are still coming our way. On this mothers day.. I wanna tell my mummy thanks for sharing your Vitiligo. You rock. Love you sooo much. #happymothersday #appreciation #ourjourneytogether #vitiligosa #vitiligo #soulmate #lovetheauthenticyou #loveauthenticsa #lovetheskinyouin #artinmotion #spottingbeauty Photography by Tejal Naran
Message by Baveesha Naran LOVEauthentic supports the Red My Lips initiative. Red My Lips is a global awareness campaign where supporters rock red lipstick all throughout the month of April (Sexual Assault Awareness Month) to demonstrate solidarity and support for survivors and start important conversations with people in their lives. Red My Lips is designed to raise visibility and awareness about the realities and prevalence of sexual violence, while combatting rape myths and victim-blaming. LOVEauthentic asked supporters to help us make a valuable statement in support of this eye opening initiative. I thank all the beautiful ladies and our super cool gentleman for allowing us this opportunity. The awareness campaign is only a success because of you guys. Read more on this redmylips.org Follow us on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/LOVEauthenticsa Instagram : @loveauthentic.co.za #loveauthentic #loveauthenticsa #lovetheauthenticyou #redmylips #redmylips2015 #baveeshaphotography Photography by Baveesha Photography CLICK ON PICTURE TO VIEW LARGER IMAGES
CLICK ON PICTURE TO VIEW LARGER IMAGES Story by Baveesha Naran Photography by Kashmira Naran Being in Clarens for our 2nd mountain bike challenge was so exciting. The most special moment of our trip was when we met for breakfast and everyone had our orange LOVEauthentic Tshirts on. It brought tears of joy to my eyes. We all looked amazingly united. I am so grateful to all that came along to be part of this experience. Each and every person here, wore these t-shirts with such pride and joy and that totally made my day. There was no convincing involved, everyone just did so because they felt passionate about the cause themselves. Our group included 4 riders and 6 supporters. Each rider came with very specific personal goals to achieve, which we all successfully completed. It was so cool to see our LOVEauthentic group cheering and clapping at the end as we headed towards finish line. I could spot them a mile away and it left us riders with the warmest feeling ever. So blessed we are. Our official partnerships/sponsorships: 1. Itumek Cycling 2. Exquisite Functions 3 Baveesha Photography LOVEauthentic thanks you for getting on board and assisting us in achieving our goals. I will share an intro to each sponsor soon, what they're all about and why they're supporting our cause. Thank you all for reading, I wish you were there for this experience. It was truly EPIC. LOVE you guys ... My Vitiligo journey began last year in Clarens when I did a mountain bike race. It was the first time I fully exposed my Vitiligo, when I wore my shorts for the very first time. This year, when I realized its that time of the year again .... I knew I had to go back .... ITS MY ANNIVERSARY ... a moment, place and time that was part of changing my life, This together with my Cape Epic Mission of wanting to ride in 2017 for LOVEauthentic | My Vitiligo Campaign gave birth to us designing branded Tshirts. for our mountain bike race in Clarens and all races thereafter. Our t-shirts are at the printers as I write this blog post, cant wait to see and share the final product. Story by Baveesha Naran
This year in March I found myself at the ABSA Cape Epic, in the beautiful city of Cape Town. The experience turned out to be such an awesome adventure, I pushed so many new boundaries, I had so many new experiences and met such wholesome people along the way. So Absa Cape Epic is the most televised mountain bike stage race in the world, it takes place over eight days and is classed as hors catégorie ( a French term used in cycle races to designate a climb that is "beyond categorization", or an incredibly tough climb) by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). 600 teams or 1200 riders participate every year. This year the total distance was 748km. I went as a volunteer and was station at Waterpoint 3. I went specifically because of my love for photography and mountain biking. My photography experience was phenomenal, I believe the pictures I captured, I could not have captured anywhere else in the world (www.baveesha.com). I feel so grateful to have got that opportunity. On the other hand, this experience sparked a new dream. I watched riders, big and small, struggle, laugh, fight, cry, hope, pray and really dig deep to make it to the end of the 8 day race. Only hard work, strong will and true determination could get one there and ready to take on the beautiful yet so steep mountains. In the beginning I saw it as craziness, but by Day 8, I knew I’d ride this race one day. Soon after I decided that : I’ll return to the CAPE EPIC as a rider in 2017. I’ll do it for our cause, to raise awareness for LOVEauthentic | My Vitiligo Campaign. This gives me 2 years to train, to go from cycling 20km in 2h30min to cycling in excess of 700km over 8days at the ABSA CAPE EPIC. It was so amazing how doing it for my LOVEauthentic | My Vitiligo Campaign changed my outlook of this massive task. It made it worthwhile, gave the dream a new drive and the forward force it needed. I’ll do this to bring awareness to LOVEauthentic | My VITILIGO Campaign and ride to remind all “LOVE THE AUTHENTIC YOU” I’m super excited about what lies ahead. Here’s some pics of my Cape Epic Experience. A must share, is that, I went to rider the registration day in shorts. I thought to myself, that “I knew nobody here, let me go in the truest form of me and hide nothing”. Another first, CONQUERED. I am so glad I did, because thereafter I was so comfortable. The beauty of just being you, is so powerful and serene. Photography by Baveesha Photography Story by Alvina Motilall MY STORY | My name is Alvina Motilall I am 19 years old and I have had vitiligo from the age of 3 . To me it is my whole life, because I can never remember being without my patches. Being so small when I first had it, it did not really have much of an effect on me because I was too small to really know what was going on, all I knew Is that I looked different compared to the rest of my family, and occasionally tried to scrub off the patches or hoped it will heal overnight. As I grew up I began to realize I am DIFFERENT and noticed how the rest of the world reacted to me, this affected me a lot which most of my family are unaware of because I have always been absolutely confident and walked with my head held high but as I entered my teen years it began to affect me. I’ve been on treatment from the age of 3 I have been fully white, patchy with more white, patchy with less white and almost fully brown, which nobody can ever remember, including me, because everyone gets used to my appearance every year. In 2006 I decided to write about me for an English speech which my mother was not very keen on but I was determined to share with my friends how I truly felt, as I wrote I realized wow these patches define me, it is who “I” AM and I decided to name my speech MY PROUDEST MOMENT which was when I didn’t feel different. And I have now written 4 speeches which has impacted many people and gained a lot of recognition in Durban. WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST STRUGGLE WITH VITILGO, AND HOW DID YOU OVERCOME IT? To be honest I never really had a big struggle with vitiligo. I had my days where I felt down because somebody picked on me or I wanted to be like my sister ‘ONE COLOUR”, but I guess I have my FAMILY and friends to thank for not struggling. They treated me equally and supported me in everything I wanted to do. I look up especially to my mum, my dad and my sister Ashmeika who has overcome many struggles of her own. My aunt Pricilla also has Vitiligo, she is completely white and has been a great inspiration. Lastly if it was not for my cousins Vash, Les and Marlene, I would have not made it through my schooling career. In the year 2007 I began to reach out to other kids who were embarrassed about having vitiligo and helped them overcome this. I shared my speeches with people who realized that treating people who are different equally, is good. I also decided that instead of crying and bringing myself down I would confront those who would pick on me and make them understand, what it felt like to be in my position. I am proud to say I changed the way many students think and treat people in my primary and high school. I always wanted to reach out to more people and with the help of LOVEauthentic I am now able to achieve my goals , once again my name is Alvina Motilall and I am proud to be DIFFERENT. WHAT ARE THE LESSONS OR MOTIVATIONS YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE WITH ALL
Never give anyone the opportunity to bring you down, if you bring yourself down you are just giving another person leverage to bring you down more, love yourself and learn to embrace your flaws. To make vitiligo fun do what I do with my cousins find cool patches ,I’ve found a Pac-man and a heart and I think that’s pretty cool I mean who else can say they have cool and amazing tattoos that change as years go pass. Photography by Kashmira Naran Story by Baveesha Naran
So excited to share LOVEauthentics My Vitiligo campaign. We begin with bringing awareness to what Vitiligo is all about. Thanks Marlene Pillay from #mphotographysa for this incredible picture. It is now our Official Campaign Cover.
Have you been wondering what we're all about. I've tried to answer all the questions that have been unclear, Here's why, how and what we're all about. THANK YOU to all the amazing people who've helped in making this dream materialise. On Valentine’s Day I'd like to share a story that changed my outlook on LOVE. I was watching one of Oprah shows, she relayed a story of how she’d gone to sympathise with a friend who’d just lost their loved one. In conversation, her friend said, “You know what I experience right now? I’ve spoken to people who have called from near and far to see if I’m ok, I see people who’ve taken time out of their day, to help me through my tough time and I see people who’ve filled my house with snacks and food when I’m not able to.
Today I realise that I am so blessed as….. this is LOVE, and this is LOVE, and this is LOVE” Happy Valentine’s Day All … |
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