>>PREVIEW
IN HER MOTHER’S SHOES
Runs until October 27
By Paula Bock and Betty Udesen
Glenbow Museum
An exhibition of photojournalism at the Glenbow Museum documents the unrelenting worldwide calamity known as HIV/AIDS.
The HIV/AIDS crisis is what reporter Paula Bock and photographer Betty Udesen of the Seattle Times wanted to see when, in 2002, they travelled from the Emerald City to Zimbabwe.
The result is a photo essay project titled In Her Mother’s Shoes, the story of one of an estimated 11 million AIDS orphans that now populate sub-Saharan Africa.
Bock writes, "In the July issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, doctors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called the world's response to AIDS ‘the moral challenge of this era.’ In their commentary, An Unequal Epidemic in An Unequal World, they write: The situation in Africa is different in scale and scope with a devastating, generalized HIV/AIDS epidemic superimposed on an eroding health infrastructure burdened by other health threats. A fundamental question is to what extent public health strategies can reverse Africa's current adverse health trends without long-term economic development or an HIV vaccine.
"There is no vaccine and none near. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, created last year by the United Nations, estimates it needs $7 billion to $10 billion a year to slow the tide of AIDS in developing countries by 2005. To date, governments have committed less than $3 billion, including a U.S. contribution of $500 million."
Udesen has used her photography skills with equal authority, capturing moments that focus on one little girl but tell a much larger story of how the world is failing to halt HIV/AIDS.
One image shows Ruth Chimuonenji wearing her mother’s sandals. It is a poignant reminder, as Bock’s text also notes, that as a little girl growing up in Zimbabwe, Ruth will face the prospect of living in a place where half of the country’s teenagers will die of AIDS.
In another photo is Ruth’s mother, a woman who became infected with HIV/AIDS after she married a man who was unfaithful and refused to use condoms. In this photo, there is a look of death on her face. She is reported to have asked visitors, "Who will look after my children?"
It’s a question that a dying woman wanted to know, but so too does a growing chorus of compassionate humans who believe their governments have failed to stem this flow of disease and death.
Stephen Lewis, Canada’s own crusader on the topic had this to say when he spoke to the attendees of the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto on Aug. 18, 2006: "Unbeknownst to many, we are on the cusp of a huge financial crisis in response to the pandemic. I think we have been lulled into a damaging false security by the fact that we jumped from roughly $300 million a year from all sources in the late 1990's, to $8.3 billion in 2005. And indeed it sounds impressive. But we need $15 billion this year, and $18 billion next year, and $22 billion in 2008. Any straight-line projection will take us to $30 billion in 2010 - the moment of universal access to treatment, prevention and care.
"We're billions and billions short of those targets. If these circumstances continue, universal access is doomed. All governments, as they continue to expand their treatment and prevention initiatives, are spooked by worries of financial sustainability. They're right to be spooked."
Arguments over how much money is required to address HIV/AIDS aside, this selection of photos pinpoints the all too familiar face of the pandemic – African women and children.
The complete essay by Bock and Udesen is available online at http://seattletimes.nwsourse.com/news/nation-world/aids/01.html. |
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