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By Bridget McEnaney

13 Jun 2009

This might be a long story, but it's a story worth telling, and quite a few JPEGers have been encouraging me to write one, so here it is. I hope you'll take a few minutes and make it through to the end.

In 2007 I traveled to Malawi, a small country in Sub-Saharan Africa, to volunteer with an organization called World Camp, which provides crucial HIV/AIDS education to children in rural primary schools in Malawi, Honduras and India. It was truly THE most eye-opening time in my life, and since I left I've had every intention of going back to work with these kids and document this incredible organization. However, with the economy as it is, World Camp is in danger of having to shut down – significantly fewer volunteers have been able to afford the trip, and these program fees are what keeps World Camp running. Knowing what I know about this organization, it absolutely breaks my heart to think of them closing the doors on such important work. As a college student I'm not in a position to make an organization-saving donation, but I can put my philosophy of photography as a means to enact change to good use by telling a little piece of World Camp's story in hopes that it might inspire someone out there to volunteer or donate, even in these hard times.

There are one million HIV/AIDS orphans in Malawi alone. This is staggering considering its population is only around 13 million. As many of us in this country know from our endless job searches in this tough economy, education is everything when you're trying to beat someone out for a job or promotion. But for children in Malawi, education is much more fundamental – their lives depend on it. Malawian children can't hop on a laptop and Google "HIV/AIDS transmission" to learn about how to protect themselves from contracting and spreading this deadly disease. In fact, like so many other African nations, Malawi has, until recently, been under the control of a government with political and cultural motivations to keep this life-saving information away from the people, allowing the disease to flourish in a culture of silence and shame. Through interactive three-day camps put on in rural primary schools across the country, World Camp volunteers have provided this life-saving education to more than 25,000 children since 2001.

What sets World Camp apart from so many NGOs is the relationship they've built with the people of Malawi, a relationship which is absolutely crucial to making their efforts effective long-term. The program runs two summer sessions during the summer and one in January, maintaining a constant presence and relationship with locals. Even though Malawian children are taught English to some degree in primary school, World Camp uses translators during lessons and prints learning materials in Malawi's native language, Chichewa, to ensure the children understand the lessons. The fact that volunteers have been able to do condom demonstrations (a component of the three-day curriculum at every school) and teach about modes of HIV/AIDS transmission in the most rural reaches of a country where just talking about childbirth is taboo is a testament to the rare relationship program coordinators and volunteers have with the people of Malawi.

World Camp's curriculum is a fluid document, growing with every session as volunteers come up with new methods of teaching. It has expanded to include lessons for girls on how to say "no!" to sexual advances and anonymous Q&A sessions where kids can write down questions about sex, HIV/AIDS, rape, pregnancy and menstruation in their native language and have them answered by volunteers working with translators. They've also expanded to include lessons on deforestation, a major problem in Malawi, and added tree-planting as part of the curriculum at every school.

The HIV/AIDS problem in Africa is overwhelming, and it's difficult to know where to start or how to help. And in this economy, with so many layoffs and uncertainty about the future, it's hard to feel like there's anything you can do for children so far away. But for these children, our economic troubles are non-existent, except that fewer volunteers with life-saving information are able to come to their schools. I know it was a struggle for me to raise the money to make it over there in 2007 when the economy was doing fine (or so we thought), and I can't imagine how hard it would be to do so now. But I do know that donations of any size might help World Camp weather this economic storm and come out on the other side of it still able to continue the work they do so well.

25,000 children have been through the World Camp curriculum in just seven years. These children will be armed with the information they need to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancy throughout their lives. The average family size in Malawi is 5.5. That's somewhere between 75,000 and 100,000 future children of the kids already taught by World Camp who will be significantly less likely to contract HIV/AIDS from their mothers during childbirth or be orphaned by HIV/AIDS and much more likely to receive accurate information from their parents growing up about how to prevent transmission. Imagine what it could be 20 years from now if World Camp can continue operating. The growth is exponential. THIS is how we stop HIV/AIDS. THIS is how we give these kids a chance at a life we so often take for granted.

I know the economy is precarious, and there are many victims here and abroad. My own mother lost her job after 15 years and may lose much more in the coming months, and I hear that story from more and more people every day. But World Camp, an organization started by a few college students after a trip to Africa, is a perfect example of how something so small with seemingly insurmountable financial, logistical and cultural barriers could make such a huge difference. The same goes for donations of any size. There's really no measure of how far your contribution could go in helping keep World Camp afloat and helping inch closer to the day when the spread of education surpasses the spread of this deadly disease.

So please, take a look at these photos, read the captions for additional information, and if you are touched by this in any way, make a tax-deductible donation of any amount at

http://worldcampforkids.org/donate.htm

Also, I vow that if World Camp is able to continue next summer and I make it back there as I was planning, I will bring a new story about the little NGO that could, and YOU, JPEGers, will be a part of that story. JPEG is, after all, the story of the little photo magazine that could.

And a note to my fellow photographers out there:

There is no end to the power your camera has with you behind it. Find a story that makes your heart race and tell it here. Tell the story of the guy you know down the street who's losing his home. Tell the story of the single mother who is struggling to raise an autistic child. Tell the story of that weird guy in town who's building a car that runs on popsicle juice – maybe he's on to something! There are so many stories out there that deserve a voice, and you have the tools and unique talent to tell it like no one else can. If your camera is talking, someone out there will hear it.

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