Picturing Hope – Burkina Faso and Tanzania

The project combines photography with materials including sample pictures, world maps, magazines, camera diagrams, dry-erase boards, dry erase markers, Post It Notes, markers, crayons, poster board, glue/2-sided tape, scissors, a camera for modelling, cameras for each child, notebooks/journals for each child.

The project had a five-day training programme that was initiated at Vasavya Mahila Mandali, Vijayawada, India and took place from April 27 2004 to May 2 2004. Fourteen children between the age group of 10–18 years, orphans and vulnerable children (children affected by AIDS and street children) attended the workshop. The children were taught how to handle a camera and take pictures and capture emotions.

Children maintained journals expressing their profiles and their own feelings and problems faced in life. They learned to handle cameras and load film and to use disposable cameras. Children developed photo stories of various issues like child labour, poverty, and their income-generating activities, including rag picking, and fishing. After the workshop, the children developed posters and expressed captions for the photos. The photos and the journals were displayed at the International AIDS Conference held in Bangkok from July 10– 15 2004.

Children, HIV/AIDS

The purpose of the project is to enable children to understand, use, and share their emotions and thoughts with pictures using a camera. It also aimed to develop at least one thousand children photographers to capture the emotions and situations of vulnerable children.