I met John Paul Vicory a few years ago in Hawaii.  He was part of a troupe of photographers compiling a book of their experience traveling the globe.  I was impacted, especially, by a story he told of the time he and his team spent in conversation with sex workers in the Red Light district of Amsterdam, a story featured in the book Sex + Money: A Global Search for Human Worth. [View John's stunning photography here.]

John Paul’s honesty about his life and experience is disarming; his genuine concern for those who suffer is informed not by pity, but with genuine love.  I was intrigued to learn that he was embarking on a trip to Africa to work with children orphaned by AIDs, something he has done before.

John Paul travels to Mbiko, Uganda and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 29 June, 2010 to reconnect with two orphan care centers in order to help establish sustainable and transparent Child Sponsorship Programs.  Born in Denver, Colorado, John Paul is pursuing a Master’s Degree in International Care and Community Development.  I caught up with John Paul  (via email) before his adventure to learn more about his project.

Andrew Kooman: You describe, in your recent project proposal for an orphan center, hearing a young choir of orphans in Uganda sing about their parents’ death to AIDS. The thought of that moment sends chills down my spine. Describe what it’s like to encounter young children who have suffered much?

John Paul Vicory: I sat listening to them singing that song for the first time with my hand over my mouth in disbelief. I couldn’t believe that these beautiful children had experienced so much tragedy. It makes me sad. It is such a humbling experience seeing so much pain in these little children. They don’t deserve it at all. I was shamed almost because I walk around so often thinking that my problems are so important. It was, and continues to be, an experience that changes my life.

AK: Can you recount the moment when you decided you had to do something to help orphans in Uganda?

JPV: I remember the exact morning. It was one of the most emotionally charged days in my entire life. I had been in Uganda for about a month, Africa for 3 months, and I was kind of depressed. I didn’t feel like I had any purpose being there and I was tired. Tired of the mundane work I was doing and tired of feeling useless. I wanted to make a difference. A series of divine appointments landed my friend Alex and I at St. Ameria’s [Orphan Care Center] to hear the children sing. Later that week God dropped a vision bomb on my head and changed the course of my life. He told me what to do, He gave me the path. I was wrapped in a Masaai blanket, sitting on a porch looking over the sugar cane fields and Lake Victoria having my quiet time. I literally started crying because the feeling was so heavy with joy. It feels like the scene out of a movie or something.

"Florence" photograph © John Paul Vicory

AK:. The numbers you detail in your proposal are, quite honestly, unfathomable to me. You cite a UNICEF report that estimates the number of orphans in Uganda will reach 2.5 million by 2010 with an unthinkable 53.1 million orphaned children in sub-Saharan Africa alone (more orphans than there are people in my homeland Canada)! How do you place your work and position yourself in the shadow of such a towering problem?

JPV: I can’t even comprehend the magnitude of the work to be done. 53.1 million really makes it seem like whatever I do with my tiny little time here won’t really make a difference at all. But, there is beauty in that too because I serve a God that knows each and every one of those children and loves them with an unreal love. I hope that I can get a glimpse of that love and can share it with as many people as He puts in my path. My place can seem insignificant in the shadow of the issue, but I know that God uses the willing, and I am willing. Even if He only uses me to touch a few lives, it’s all more than worth it.

AK: In your view, why does it matter that people in North America help African orphans?

JPV: It matters because these children matter and we are all connected. We are all God’s sons and daughters. It matters because North America has so many resources to be able to make a difference. Not only do the children need people to advocate for them, but, as North Americans, we need to look outside of ourselves to see the needs of the world and use the gifts that God has given us to share His love. Jesus said that He is the naked, imprisoned, and destitute. If we truly want to seek Him, we need to go where He is… that includes the poor and needy in North America and in Africa as well.

AK: What do orphans have to offer the communities where they live?

JPV: They are the future of their nations and communities. 2.5 million is a lot of people. Given the opportunity, they could become doctors, teachers, community leaders, lawyers, and prime ministers. They are bright individuals who know about suffering. They know what its like to have less than nothing. Because of their experience, they have a greater understanding of what it would mean to cause a real change for the poor people in their communities. They are the ones that can break the negative cycles because they are in them. They can do far more than I could ever do because I am and will always be outside of the system. Even if they don’t become prime ministers, they can still make a big difference in their communities. Take Edith, the director of St. Ameria, as an example. She is an orphan herself and now directly cares for over a hundred children.

AK: How much of your development work for orphans will involve addressing the issue of AIDS/HIV?

JPV: Initially, addressing HIV/AIDS is going to be related to the direct and immediate care of orphans who are HIV positive, and whose parents have died from AIDS. I would like to focus on the immediate care until that has reached a level that can be reliable. After that, HIV/AIDS will be particularly addressed from a community development standpoint. If HIV is going to be something that generates more orphans, then it is going to be a priority. I don’t know how that is going to work yet, but I have thought about using the orphan care centers as places where the community can come and learn from each other, learn about prevention, hear guest speakers, take votes on the issues that are most pressing, etc.

Markato; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - photograph © John Paul Vicory

AK: You’ve done work documenting and addressing the reality of children trafficked for sex in Africa. How are orphans particularly vulnerable to traffickers?

JPV: Orphans are vulnerable on a variety of different levels. Since they don’t have families to care for them, they are disregarded by the general population. Who would miss them if they are gone or being taken advantage of? If they are not being cared for, they often end up on the streets trying to survive any way they can. They can fall victim to prostitution and trafficking due to the fact that they need to eat and pimps and traffickers can provide that for them. I have even heard cases of illegal adoptions, which is trafficking as well, and orphan care centers selling children to make money or to keep the doors open and the lights on. There is some really terrible stuff that happens hiding behind a facade of care, which is why accountability and transparency is so important.

AK: What are your goals for your upcoming trip to Uganda and Ethiopia?

JPV: The overarching goal of the trip this summer is to begin the formation of a Child-Sponsorship program at 2 orphan care centers. I need to gather a lot of information and a lot of pictures and video in order to do so. I will also spend a lot of time talking with the directors of the orphan care centers to establish methods of communication, accountability, organizational structure, and general vision for the future of their ministries. The child-sponsorship program will set the stage for future involvement.

AK: What will a successful trip look like to you?

JPV: Hmm. I guess I haven’t thought about that one too much. I would love to bring back compelling footage and get all of the stories of each of the children at each center. I would also like some great ideas for partnering with the directors to come up with sustainable solutions for each of the centers.

AK: You describe a decisive change in your life where you abandoned the pursuit of your own greatness and realized you had a calling to become an advocate for others. What triggered this switch?

JPV:Wow, that makes me sound much cooler than I actually am. I still really live for myself way too much, but I have had a change of heart. The switch was triggered during my conversion actually on a November night in Kohala, Hawaii. Pursuing my own greatness had left me with absolutely nothing except for darkness and death. I didn’t want to live anymore. In the silence of the night I had a conversation with God. I didn’t want to live and He asked me why I was living? At that moment, I realized that I had been selfish. I realized that I needed a Savior, and that Jesus was the only one that could save me. I asked Him to come in and change the way I lived. I woke up the next morning and felt transformed. Everything that I saw, read, and heard, it was as if I was experiencing it for the first time. I was born again.
Soon after that, He gave me the opportunity to spend six months in Africa and showed me who I was to become and the people that I would advocate for. Since then, I have gone places, done things, and met people I never thought possible, and it’s just the beginning.

AK: What advice would you give to people who are touched by the plight of orphans and, beyond giving money, aren’t quite sure what to do?

JPV: I would encourage people to go spend time with my friends in Uganda and Ethiopia. I guarantee that their lives would be changed. Beyond that, there is so much that people can do besides giving money. God has created each of us with gifts. In fact, I believe that we all are uniquely created unlike anyone else and can do things that no one else can do. They can use those gifts to uncover the beauty of God’s creation and to bring Hope where there is none. We need each other to make the biggest change. No matter how smart or dumb I am, I need all kinds of help. I don’t know how to run businesses or construct buildings, but other people do and can provide their gifts for the enrichment of little children that God deeply loves.

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Follow John on his blog.

Learn more about how you can donate to his important work here.

I came across Jehad Nga‘s photography when I fell through a series of rabbit holes on the web (including trendsetter).

His current Turkana exhibition is amazing.  Check out his work!

Susanne Childers is a visionary, not only a woman who has faith to see change, but one who looks at the world through the lens of a camera. She is a native of Germany where she studied photography and worked professionally for 10 years, specializing in portraiture. For Susanne, the camera is more than a device through which she can capture powerful images: it is a pen, a sword, her voice. Her camera is a way of communicating with the world and naming things. And she has put her camera to use, working on community development projects in nations like Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Nepal, and India to advocate for those who suffer injustice.

I first met Susi, as her friends call her, at a leadership seminar in Kona, Hawaii in 2003 along with her husband Paul, with whom she recently launched a school that combines the study of culture, scripture, and photography. At the time, she shared some of her photographs and spoke with honesty and passion, her words cutting to the heart as she told of injustices like female genital mutilation and children sold into sex slavery, terrible things she has seen first hand in her extensive world travels.

Her photography makes impact and evokes a response. When I first saw her calendar The Eyes of Afghanistan I was compelled to engage her work and did so with a series of poems that coincided with each picture.

Susi’s most recent work, among her other publications which can be viewed and purchased through photogenX is featured in the booklet 30 Days of Prayer for the Voiceless, a publication that highlights issues of gender-based injustice worldwide. The booklets set Susi’s photographs and creative short stories alongside staggering statistics, prayer points, and suggestions for action.

About the booklets Susi said the following, “the pictures are for the eyes, the statistics for the mind and the stories for the heart. The three combined should not leave anyone untouched.” And here her vision becomes both inspiring and audacious: she risks the belief that some of the ugly issues of injustice that scar our world will be eradicated in her lifetime.

I asked Susi a few questions about her approach to the art of photography.

Andrew Kooman: Susi, your photographs are powerful. You capture something subtle but deep about your subjects, and we often see it through the subject’s eyes. What, as a photographer, is it like to look through the lens at all different sorts of people around the world, and at injustice? What happens in you as you travel the globe and take photographs of beautiful but suffering people?

Susi Childers: In all the challenges of poverty,injustice and hurt it is still the greatest privilege to be able to interact with people from different tribes and languages by using a camera. I have never stopped being in awe of the beauty of each individual no matter the circumstances they are in. Meeting all these different people changed my life too.

I often explain it the following way. Each suffering I saw has left a scar in my heart. A scar is not something nice. But each scar made me into who I am today. I am thankful for every connection I had – hard or easy – because I became a different person through them and I don’t take things for granted!

AK: How has your approach to photography changed since you worked as a professional photographer in Germany to today – what’s different?

SC: Its been so freeing to not be bound by money. As a photographer who lived off my work I had to take pictures the way people wanted them. Now I can take the pictures the way I see them. I often experience that God shows me what he sees and that’s not always easy. But it so much more exciting!

AK: As an artist, how do you keep your art form fresh and exciting so that you don’t tire of what you do?

SC: I do something with the pictures I take. The one sure way to lose all joy of taking pictures is to put them in folders or drawers and never do anything with them. Pictures are taken to be shown, not to be stored. Whenever I hold a new publication in my hands the fire and passion for photography is refreshed!

AK: As a creative person and communicator, and, as a leader of a training school that emphasizes photography and Christian teaching, how do you see these two things intersecting and working together?

SC: Skill with character is only half of the thing. As people develop skill they

should also be trained in character. The two things go closely together. That’s why we train people in both and its fun to watch their development.

I believe it makes a difference if a person behind a camera is a Christian. God challenges us to worship him with our all, so no matter what gift or profession we have we are to worship. In teaching both we bridge the gap between the wrong ideas of secular and sacred!

View some of Susanne Childers’ photographs here.

* photographs courtesy of photogenX

Purchase the work of Susanne Childers:

A Voice for the Voiceless. A beautiful calendar featuring the stunning photographs of Susanne Childers, and the faces of women, children and refugees from around the world. Proceeds from the calendar are given to the work of a new publication focused on raising awareness about the plight of abused migrant workers in South East Asia.

Calendar Stats -

Language: English and German; Multi-year; Size: 9×12.5 inches (folded); 9×25 inches (unfolded); :: $21.00
- It is a full color print

30 Days of Prayer for the Voiceless. With more than 100,000 copies in print and translated into 5 languages, these booklets are opening peoples’ eyes and hearts to the issues of injutsice so many women and children face around the world. Examining 30 issues of injustice, including Female Genital Mutilation, Human Trafficking, and Slavery, the booklets are filled with facts, stories, photographs, prayer and action points.

A must read book! $5.00 :: Buy it HERE

read an excerpt

has a spanky new website.
i like it. and him.

check out his art.
be inspired.