Reeta Roy, Abbot: Hi everyone. My name is Reeta. I'm representing the Abbot Fund which is a part of the Abbot company, Abbot is a healthcare company based in Chicago and the Abbot Fund is the philanthropic organization , or the charitable organization of the company.
So just a little bit of intensive background: Abbot is a healthcare company which has been involved in HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic nearly 20 years ago. We have been involved in terms of R & D, discovering new medicines, creating new tests so people can detect this virus. But at the same time we have been also very involved in terms of looking at how we can be part of the solution, and the solution particularly for people who live on a lot less than we have here. Namely, a lot of people who live in Africa, and who live in parts of Asia, what we call the developing world.
A huge piece of our commitment is really focusedaround children and we started that about 5 years ago because through some work and some research we identified that this epidemic was going to have a huge toll on millions of millions of lives and part of the whole experience of this epidemic is that many, many children will lose their parents and indeed many children will have to become adults, very, very quickly to look after not only themselves but perhaps their younger siblings. The situation just to give you a few statistics, and I would just ask for a show of hands- how much you all know about HIV AIDS and feel free to ask me any questions and ill take them later. But how many of you are familiar with the disease itself, just a show of hands. That's great! That's fantastic, in terms of awareness. That is not the case in many, many parts of the world surprisingly and shockingly.
There are about 18 million children who are either orphaned or made some how vulnerable because of HIV AIDS. And 2 million of them live in India. And India easily, we would say, has the world's single largest population of kids who are affected by AIDS. Part of the work that we do is to figure out how can we help children, how can we help communities how can we help adults who are trying to help children who are living with this terrible situation because a family member is ill because a family member or a parent has passed on because of AIDS or who have been left behind totally, because of AIDS.
In a society like India, one of the biggest challenges is stigma; stigma and discrimination. I'm not sure how many of you- have any of you traveled to India? Anyone? That's great. I see a few hands. I'm part Indian so I can speak a bit about that. India is a country which is huge, beautiful, rich, and diverse in culture. Its also a society which is fairly traditional, hierarchical and in that kind of society a situation with a disease like HIV/AIDS creates a lot of fear, a lot of superstition a lot of misunderstanding and unfortunately as a result a lot of stigma and a lot of discrimination.
Children, in some cases people your won ages, younger, face tremendous barriers - no friends, and young kids who face a situation where they come into the playground other kids leave the playground because their parents have been told 'don't play with those kids'. Kids who, and I've met many of them , who when you ask what are you concerned about, the first thing is- 'I don't want my mom to die, I don't want to be left alone'. Kids who have to look after a parent when a parent is ill. Who have to figure out 'what do I do when my moms got a fever' or 'when she can't make it to the bathroom', 'how do I help her'. Children who are, again, just like maybe all of us, you know, who have dreams and who have hopes who want to fulfill their own lives pursuits and yet have to figure it out from a day to day basis. And one of the greatest challenges is that the because children many times have no voice, no advocate, no one to take up their cause; they're easy targets for exploitation. Many children end up on the street; unfortunately, many children also end up in the sex trade. Many families are completely broken up. Many children are thrown out of their families or rejected by other relatives, and so have to cope on their own. part of our program is to figure out ways we can work with different community based organizations who are either providing social services, whether its education, nutrition, healthcare, legal services. Trying to find help for children to get birth certificates so they have an identity. If you have an identity you have rights and entitlements and you can have assets. But that's, those kinds of things which we try to do.
We are working right now in several communities in India and reaching about 47 000 families and children who are impacted by HIV/AIDS. It's a drop in the ocean in terms of their needs, but the good news is that there are lots of programs and lots of terrific organizations, organizations like Picturing Hope, which are doing a lot to first of all lift up the voice of children, voices of children to be an advocate for children to bring greater awareness about their situation. And most importantly let children speak for themselves about what they need and what they'd like and where they see the solutions are. I'm not going to say too much more but I would love to get your questions. I'd like to introduce Craig Bender who has been a friend of the Abbot Fund, and who has been with us since the beginning ever since we started our work helping children who have been affected by HIV/AIDS. Craig is an exceptional and talented photographer, who has been with us documenting our programs and documenting the lives of many, many children who have been impacted by HIV/AIDS. And as a result, Craig came into it on his own to figure out 'what can he do?' to help children tell their own story. And so, without much further ado I'm going to have Craig come up here and tell you the story about Picturing Hope. (Applause)
Craig Bender, Picturing Hope: Thank you. Gosh, after an introduction like that I'm embarrassed. Just a little background, I'm a photographer, I have been all my life. In fact I had my first picture published in a newspaper when I was ten years old. So I don't know how to do anything else except for take pictures. In that, I think there's a great power that I have because I've been able to tell the stories of other peoples lives throughout my life. And I wanted to be able to give that ability to somebody else to a child, and as Reeta mentioned here the effects of HIV AIDS in these communities is dramatic, and especially on the children, its highly traumatic. How do you give a child the ability to be able to empower them, and the ability to tell their own story from their own perspective?
Rather than just giving a camera away and saying 'here's a one off, go take pictures and do something', we wanted to create something that was exceptional, something that was continual, something that would help the children that are affected, to grow and to build on. So we developed a program with our implementing NGO's in Africa, in Asia, in Eastern Europe. We developed a program that would start with a 5 day introduction.
We didn't focus our time on teaching about processing film or anything, we talked about emotions. Because this is something that people aren't willing to share, and especially in an environment of stigma, its extremely hard for somebody to share of themselves or to talk about the issues and the problems they are dealing with. So we focused on sharing and having the children share with us how they feel. And what they're feeling. And what they get everyday on a day to day basis in their environment. Then we, by day 3 of this 5 day program, we give them their first camera. And in some cases this is the first worldly possession for a lot of these kids of any value.
We give them as much film as they want to shoot. We give them journals to write in. and by the end of the week they've shot dozens of rolls of film. And they're starting to open up and share their stories with us and in that, they are able to talk to a community, a bigger community, their own community and they are able to have an affect on that stigma that is affecting them. They are able to change it , they are able to turn it around. So that was the critical thing for us, was to be able to give kids a voice in these environments. I think, especially in India, we had a really good implementing partner, and they're able to grow the program for us too, that's the other interesting thing I think about Picturing Hope is that as the kids grow they can be come peer educators and they can help teach the next round of children, and they can work to develop and make the program stronger. As you look on here, you'll see some of the images taken from some of our other countries, and they are really amazing photographs.
These are photographs taken by kids, talking about their everyday life, whether it's a birthday, whether its a celebration whether its a funeral or whether its just everyday life in their own country. And the really powerful images, because they're not from the perspective of a westerner coming in. They have access to environments that I would never have access to. I change the environment by being there as a photographer, and as a westerner. But they have the ability to go anywhere they want within their own communities and tell stories I think from a much more impactful perspective. Here's Revathi, and you're going to meet her today.
What I'd like to do is, because we can talk about some of the technical things if you have some questions about the program, but I really would like to introduce you to the children that are a part of our program because I think its more important that you hear from them and hear from them about the program and get to know them because they're really the ones that have the voice, they're really the ones that make the difference. So with that I'd like to introduce you to a young man, an exceptional young man, who works as a peer educator in our program. Who is a fighter, supporter of other kids in his community… I aspire to be as strong as he is. He's a really exceptional child. Meroz, if you would please come up. Meroz is from Vijayawada, and with that I will hand the program over to Meroz. It's all yours. So, ok.
P. Meroz, Youth Photographer and Child Mentor: Good afternoon everybody, I'm Meroz. I'm studying in 9th standard in India. I'm the child mentor …. of VMM (Vasavya Mahila Mandali). I entered into this program because both my parents are doctors and when I in my parent's clinic I saw many HIV patients suffering, from then on I thought that it is necessary to help these children.
First when I wanted to help these children, before helping these children, I go into contact with HIV with Revathi's brother. He was very sick due to HIV. He was getting treatment in my parent's clinic. After he was so sick that I wanted to do something for him. So I gave him my toy with him. He was very happy and I still remember the joy on his face from then on.
After seeing the joy on his face I thought 'even a small toy can make a change, can make a change in their lives'. So from then on I started collecting things from my friends at school. But my friends at first protested by saying that 'don't talk with the HIV or about HIV near us,' 'we don't want to hear any topic and we don't want to help you. Slowly after sometime I told them that about the work done by us and like that then slowly they told that 'ok , what are the things you need, we will try our level best to help' So I asked them to give some other things which are not useful for them. And so they gave us their pens, books, toys, clothes, and many other things. Each one of my friends has about ten caps and ten watches and everything in doubles. So I asked them if they could lend even one of their watches in which they had ten. So they told 'ok, we are going to give you one or two watches. You should promise that you will give these watches to the children but not you shouldn't keep it with your self'. I promised that.
Then my teachers used to say that 'no why are you working with these children. You'll also get HIV' then I told this to my mother. She went to the teacher talked and spoke t the teacher and said HIV is not transmitted disease from then on she also started giving us some clothes which are worn by her children like that. And there's one girl name Shaila Jha (sp). Her both the parents expired when she was 8 years old. Now she is living with her 80 year old grandfather who cannot do any work. She cooks, cleans, and washes but she still attends school. Like that there are many children like that who are trying to life, in spite of their parents death or illness. Another boy whose name is Nageshwar Rao (sp) he is age 13. He works hard to meet the demands of the family, even his grandfather and grandmother who cannot do any work. And mother who is bedridden. His father died due to HIV. So there are many children like that who need help. And I'm very thankful to Abbot for their help. Let us all make a difference in the lives of these children and make our lives more meaningful. Thank you. And now I introduce Revathi and she will talk about her life story.
Craig Bender: Just at this time I'd like to invite Ramu and Reeta and everybody else to come up and sit here… oh and Keerthi, to come up and join us here. While we hear from Revathi.
K. Revathi, Youth Photographer: My name is Revathi. I'm from VMM in India. I'm speaking in Telugu. Meroz will translate. Once my brother was got severe stomach pain and the doctors told that he has to get operated for appendectomy. After doing the appendectomy, the wound was not healing. When they test the wound the pas was coming out of the wound.
So the doctors took a blood test so that they could know anything about it. And he was found positive. It was so sad to hear that my brother was also positive and immediately they tested my parents and the parents were found also positive. We were not aware of HIV even, before meeting VMM. Our neighbors used to come and tell that the persons who get HIV will die.
After some time I also got blood test and tested for HIV and the report was negative. From then on my parents kept me away from them because they feared the transmission of HIV. Even my relatives also would not come to us and they never came to us and talked to us. Before they used to come regularly talk to us and we used to share our difficulties like that but after they know that we got HIV they didn't even saw our house also. Even when we went to get water they for each colony there's one water pump. Even if we went to go and bring water near the water pump they used to whisper about us or somebody will leave the lane and just go away immediately. Nobody allowed my brother to go and play with their children because he's an HIV positive. And at that time an NGO told about our situation to VMM and they came and helped us.
After I completed 7th class, my parents stopped my education and told me to help them. Then VMM came and told that we will take care of her education like that. And I completed my 9th standard and in 10th standard I passed in first class. After I completed my 9th class in my summer holidays no relatives would allow me to come to their house and spend some time with them. So at that time Picturing Hope is this project came and I joined that and I learned photography. I never thought that I can catch a camera or hold it and keep it with me. My brother also died in this same holidays. I was very sad when he died. So I from then on I loved to take photos of small children. I think that as HIV went throughout the world and affected most the children, I think that today's children are tomorrow's citizens. So if today's children are educated in HIV the prevention in HIV, then in the future the percentage of HIV will be low.
After my brother's death no body of my relatives came for the funeral. All the Picturing Hope members and some support group members came, gave money to each of us… and at last we completed the funeral of my brother. Now I'm doing my nursing training. In my nursing training I have two best friends they are Sunita and Varalaxmi (sp). They lost their parents when they were small and they are very sad of it. In India, any person under 18 if they wanted to open a bank account they need a signature of their parents of a guardian. So Sunitha and Varalaxmi got scholarships but there is no guardian or parents for them to sign for them so VMM signed as a guardian for them. Varalaxmi has an irresponsible brother who doesn't do any work and depends upon her. And VMM gave her tailoring machine and now she is working in tailoring and she is getting educated in nursing education.
After my brother's death I thought there's no future. But after meeting VMM I got the chance to go to New York, and now I'm not afraid because you all are with me. Thank you. (Applause)
Meroz: Now I introduce to you Ramu. He will talk about his life story. (Applause)
Pothala Venkata Ramu, Youth Photographer: When I was small and at the age of 12 I ran out of the home due to some dispute between my parents. And now I don't know I never before I never went on a train or on a bus. But while coming from our house I went on a train and I don't know where that train goes but then I reached the Vijayawada station.
Before coming to Vijayawada my farther used to drink a lot come to home and beat me a lot. So I ran away from the house and came to Vijayawada. In Vijayawada I used to pick up papers and plastic things and sell them. And with this money I used to eat. After coming to Vijayawada after being with some street children, I got addicted to alcohol, paan, and many other narcotic drugs. And many other things.
I and some of the children were in a group and we used to go and they had the habit of sex so they forced me to have sex. In our group there are 15 children and we together from 6 years. We always go around each other. and when VMM came they told us about HIV. After VMM telling about HIV and its harmfulness, we went to VCDC center to get yourself an HIV check. And in our 15 children, 3 children were found positive.
As the three children were found positive, other street children chose not to come near him and so because he's HIV. Even in hotels like that they tell of HIV persons, 'AIDS person is coming don't go near him don't go near him.' we used to work in an ice cream factory for some time and in that also while working the owner thrown us out because they thought that if HIV person touch the ice cream the ice cream will be infected with HIV. After that they told to VMM what was happening and then VMM one of the staff of VMM came and told about HIV to the owner and then the owner stopped beating us.
Outside we used to participate in sex and they used to give us a dollar for doing sex. Most of the children did not use condoms while doing sex as they told 'we do not have enough satisfaction if we wear condoms'. VMM used to encourage the group sessions to talk about HIV and how to prevent it and like that many children we used to bring and we used to listen to it and we used to follow that. Since then we started using condoms for safe sex and we reduce the number of partners in sex. After some time we went to there is a river in Vijayawada called Krishna River. In that we used to take baths in groups. if any of our friends has no job to do we used to give money to him to buy food and give him some food. While sleeping on the streets the police used to come and beat us with sticks..... It's very painful for us that police beat us. They used to keep us in jail for 2-3 days and there even if we did not do any robbery they will tell us that 'if you don't tell that you did a robbery we will beat you'. VMM came and talked to the police department that these children wont rob and you caught the wrong person.
Now I am a staff member of VMM and I got peer educating training by VMM. And now in my area I tell to children about HIV. When I first started this photo training they all used to tell that why you're a short person what can you do why photography for you. I used to show the photos that I captured to my friends and tell them that why I took these photos and what can we change by seeing this photo. Now I am taking photos in some marriages also they give me some money and I now in our organization only I used take photos now. Before there used to be, they used to hire photographer and take but now the organization photos are taken by me. I am very thankful to Craig Uncle for helping me. Thank you.
Betsy: Thank you so much (Applause). Amazing. We've been lucky here to have a chance to have talked with you over the last couple of days but some of you may have questions or comments and we would love to , you know, have some time to exchange ideas and thoughts and responses. there's a couple of microphones on the coffee table and one on each side of the aisles so you know, if you have a chance and if there's anything you want to say just raise your hand and we will bring a microphone to you. Anyone? Alright we'll start here. We want this to be informal and interactive, no question is too big or small.
Q: I wanted to ask the young woman whose name now I've mixed up....yes...Revathi. I want to ask did you notice that you could talk about the stigma better with photographs. Did you see any signs that the stigma was lessened ? reduced? from using photographs to talk about HIV?
Revathi: if you take the snaps , hugging a person one who is HIV positive and taking the food by the side of sitting of person one who is HIV positive and staying in the same family with the people living with HIV/AIDS we can show those photographs. Take the photographs and show it to the community, that will show that how the HIV transmits, and how it won't. So it will be one way of using it for measuring and reducing the stigma in the community.
Q: I was just wondering if you take your cameras with you everywhere.
Meroz: Yes. (Laughter). We take our cameras everywhere.
Q: And I was also wondering if whether looking through the cameras has your view of the world around you changed?
Meroz: It makes us happy by catching the camera. Because we can take as many films as possible as Craig uncle gives us no limit for them.
Craig: I will say that the first roll of film that they shoot on that third day of the program its kind of like watching the paparazzi. . They kind of crank through their first roll in about 2 -3 minutes. its amazing. and then they become a little bit more patient in terms of picking what shots they take and how they frame it . in fact its kind of interesting to watch because we go out on little photo safaris during that time and I try to lead by example by taking pictures from unique angles and so forth and there's a photograph I think its in the brochure that we have extra copies of upstairs and on the table. There's a photograph of a group of the young women in the program in India all standing but you can see one girl on the end who has chosen to get down a little lower and choose a different angle and you start to see them develop their own eye after a period of time that they have a unique perspective for the same subject.
Revathi: as we are also living in the same community as we are very close to the community and pictures which we take and the situations which we capture are the living ones and also the live ones. And the second thing is they will accept us to be as a photographer and also as a community person. if a new photographer comes into the community and want to capture our scenes like street children if they want t capture it they wont accept it because they may take the photographs and how it to the parents of the street kid and the parents may come to again take the child to the home . That's why they will run away from the photographer but that's the opportunity where we get where we can capture the life stories of the people.
Ramu: its two things. When you are capturing the vulnerable situations especially trust is more important. When that trust is being developed by the street children, they will accept some of the situations to be taken the photographs. And the second thing is that if they want to have a photograph they have to spend about more than a dollar. But if I take a photograph maybe they will be spending less than half a dollar so that will be one way economical for them.
Q: Hi good afternoon. my question is how is it that there's such a lack of education on HIV and AIDS in the community being that its effecting everybody. How is there such a lack of education on that?
Keerthi Bollineni, Technical Support Manager for Vasavya Mahila Mandali (VMM) : Education is a very broad word because we are also working in the HIV AIDS sector more than one decade. it should be like a continuous project, they should know and update the knowledge and with regards to the modes of transmission and the myths and misconceptions. India is a very wide country ad also the communication facilities may not be available in all the areas with regard to the media or television. Still the government of the country and the non government organizations are making their own efforts. And also illiteracy is one way which is also make the people not to be aware of many of the issue because all the literature is available but they can't read it. So that's why many people are not aware. One, if illiteracy, ignorance... where they are not able to capture it and still on the process where the education process is going on. When we talk about prevention maybe care and support is being neglected. People living with HIV/AIDS are being discriminated...that's why education is a continuous process. That's what we are believing and the action is being taken up in those areas.
Q: Do you guys see yourselves working as photographers for ...hi my name is mani,....do you guys see yourselves working or teaching for VMM in the future. teaching other kids photography?
Revathi: when we started initially the photography training and when i went into the community and taking the photographs of our children support group meetings, the other when we took the photographs and show to the pother children they developed a curiosity because the photographs are very nice, can you please teach us how to take the photographs maybe in an informal way we have already started teaching the photography to the other children but in a more systematic way it has to go.
Ramu: when I have joined the photography training many people have teased me whether I can hold the camera itself. but after seeing the outcome of my training and seeing the photographs now at least 30-40 children are asking me can we get this opportunity. I am very lucky that I got the opportunity that time I happened to be in Vijayawada and happened to be one of the members in the training for getting the photography. Now if that opportunity comes I will certainly teach many children. Now whenever we are having a free time we are telling to the other children.
Meroz: in my school when i showed my friends the photos that I took they asked that we also have cameras we also take what is the difference you got trained and we didn't get trained but we can take photos too. but before training then after training when I showed my photos to them they asked these photos are very skillful can you tell us the secret of this. I told 'practice'. That's all.
Craig: one of the important things that we are trying to develop is that other tiers of support for people that are affected by HIV/AIDS and I think partnering with the abbot fund and implemented NGO you can come together as a group and bring in different components to help and manage care and support. So whether that's access to school books or food or education or in this case some psychological and social development programs. we can add tiers of development and I think that the unique thing about what all of us are tying to do is not to just hand over something and say here's a check do what you will with the program but to give a skill set to create something that can perpetuate itself that can just continue to evolve. And I think what u see here are children that are highly motivated and um want to become peer education and are very well spoken and really have the skill set to be able to carry that on to other kids and I think that's the important thing is that if you are going to develop something and you are going to work on something even in your own communities then its more than just you going in and doing all the work its also about helping somebody else to develop a skill or develop an idea so that they can do it and replicate it continually.
Q: Basically I wanted to know how long does it take, the program, does it have a limit of how long they can be in it, the learning process? And what is it actually like to be a part of it. Can you give us a feeling of it - you get a camera and you bring back the rolls at the end of the week? When do you see the photos? Im sure there's a lot of anxiety to see the photos?
Craig: When we initially stated the program and this is when I talk about replicating the program I went out on the first country visit to all of our sites and worked with our partners to try and develop that. If I were to do that or have to do that or have to do that every time we were going to that it's not sustainable. It's not something we can do. So that one thing we wanted to develop in this is a skill set that they'll be able to implement the program and continue to do it on their won.
We can provide the support on other levels so that they can execute the program more effectively. It's a short term program, its five days and we don't focus on anything we don't talk to them about how to process film. It's not a lot of technical. Its more in getting In touch with their emotions. So some of the materials that we use are really quite simple. I went out and bought several photo books and just cut all the pages out and laminated the pages so we could talk about what emotions different photographs would be felt by looking at that.
So the kids would share with us and hare with each other and they began to realize that in fact ten different people can look at a photograph and all feel something different. And it was just about getting them to share and open up and express themselves in a different level that they have never been able to. Or that somebody wouldn't listen t them before.
Its more about talking and more about writing and sharing so in fact I have the book that Meroz first did the first week that we were in training. We spent time we give them journals and cameras they can personalize them, they're theirs to do whatever they want to with them and in these they tell stories they tell stories about themselves they write in journals they tell stories about people they meet on the street. So its really more about getting the children in touch with what they are feeling and why they feel that way.
The photography aspect of it is we try to limit the technical things, we try to show them how and why photographs and the photos they take why they turn out a certain way and with regards to processing a film we work with color film in the field and very few places in the world u can do now without having at least a one hour two hour film processing lab so the great thing is that we could take the film out to the lab and by the end of the day they would see the results of their efforts from the day. Immediate gratification about what they are capturing, but the great thing about that was we could resolve any problems they were having if they were technical problems we could address them at that time.
So its really about getting them started and getting them in touch with their emotions and getting them just shooting lots of film because the more film they shoot the more experience they get the more feedback they can get and I think, I don't know if maybe Meroz could speak to that a little bit. Just being able to see his photos the first time was really, I think, empowering. Does that make sense?
Meroz: first time when I took my first roll I finished in two minutes and after developing it when I saw it there are just legs and hands and only heads or like without heads. So from then on I thought of taking photos and thinking that how much I should see how much if I take photo it will be nice at what distance. From then on I started thinking that will this photo be useful to us or not and so like this slowly I started reducing the number of faults in my photos.
Betsy: So, I think, I mean I know there are lots more questions but a few of the school programs have some things that I think they would like to give to you. To say thank you for being here. Are there representative or does anyone have …so do you want to come up and present what you have and introduce who you are and your school and a little bit abut what you guys are doing? That'd be great. Come up at the same time if you want. Great. How are you? Welcome. So you want to introduce yourself.
[School children share some presentations and give the children from India souvenirs they made, including a book they wrote on the rights of immigrants].
[Revathi, Meroz and Ramu do a short, moving dance performance symbolizing the impact of AIDS in India and how it will be overcome. Audience members join them on stage at the end. The New York school children also receive gifts from the Indian children- copies of their photographs and small scarves made by Indian street kids].
Program Ends.
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