Learning to Hope series: Botswana & Lesotho
Documentary Photography Series
View MOVING WALLS 15 Exhibition: Soros Open Society
While working on a documentary video for the African Library Project with filmmaker Anne Evans, I met many extraordinary children and teachers who are struggling with the HIV epidemic by focusing on literacy. Botswana and Lesotho, the two countries I visited, have the second and third highest HIV prevalence rates of infection in the world. I decided to document their stories, to try to show in images this intersection of literacy and the HIV epidemic that happens in the classrooms and libraries of the primary schools. The epidemic has devastated families and affected all citizens of both countries, but education provides hope, a way to begin recovering, especially for the young who have suffered such great losses.
Image Caption:
Malealea Valley, Lesotho
These students are looking in through the window at the school library, a rare resource in Africa. Many students must drop out of school to assist their family or because of lack of money for school fees. These young students thirst for knowledge and are the future leaders of their country.
2007