Have a look at the two images attached. One is a very controversial photograph taken of a starving child and a waiting vulture. It was controversial for a number of reasons: why was the photographer not doing something about the situation as opposed to taking a photograph and what about the dignity of the child or any human being?
Have a look at the photograph we used about ten years ago to launch our fundraising campaign for the Kabala School Project. It is a picture of one-year-old Nyima Koroma. She looks like the healthy and happy child she is/was sitting on the porch of her aunties’ house playing with an empty milk tin. A South African friend of mine commented on that photograph when he saw it and thanked me for using a picture of such a healthy looking child, full of hope and promise.
A photograph can say many things. It can tell the truth and it can lie. It can be used to persuade in positive ways or in manipulative ways. I heard the following story a few days ago.
“Once a beggar had approached the Russian story writer Leo Tolstoy and stretched his hands for alms. Tolstoy searched his pockets and said "Sorry Brother, 1 don't have anything to offer you" "Thank you, sir" said the beggar. "Why are you thanking me. I have not given you anything" asked Tolstoy. "You called me a Brother, It is enough for me" said the beggar with joy.”
The children and families in Juan Calvino Christian School in Honduras and Kabala Christian School in Sierra Leone are first of all our brothers and sisters and we always want to treat them as human beings, image bearers of God, full of worth and dignity. Our fundraising efforts are about preserving and supporting that dignity. It values them as people who are capable of learning and capable of making a difference in the world. We are supporting them because we believe an education can make a difference in someone’s life. We do not give out of pity but out of respect.
Have a look at the photograph we used about ten years ago to launch our fundraising campaign for the Kabala School Project. It is a picture of one-year-old Nyima Koroma. She looks like the healthy and happy child she is/was sitting on the porch of her aunties’ house playing with an empty milk tin. A South African friend of mine commented on that photograph when he saw it and thanked me for using a picture of such a healthy looking child, full of hope and promise.
A photograph can say many things. It can tell the truth and it can lie. It can be used to persuade in positive ways or in manipulative ways. I heard the following story a few days ago.
“Once a beggar had approached the Russian story writer Leo Tolstoy and stretched his hands for alms. Tolstoy searched his pockets and said "Sorry Brother, 1 don't have anything to offer you" "Thank you, sir" said the beggar. "Why are you thanking me. I have not given you anything" asked Tolstoy. "You called me a Brother, It is enough for me" said the beggar with joy.”
The children and families in Juan Calvino Christian School in Honduras and Kabala Christian School in Sierra Leone are first of all our brothers and sisters and we always want to treat them as human beings, image bearers of God, full of worth and dignity. Our fundraising efforts are about preserving and supporting that dignity. It values them as people who are capable of learning and capable of making a difference in the world. We are supporting them because we believe an education can make a difference in someone’s life. We do not give out of pity but out of respect.