Learning to Hope series: Botswana & Lesotho
"Learning to Hope: Children, HIV, & Education in Lesotho & Botswana"
2007, Malealea Valley, Lesotho & Kanye, Botswana
View MOVING WALLS 15 Exhibition: Soros Open Society
Advocacy Partner: The African Library Project
ALP Website
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.
