"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera." - Dorothea Lange

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

rosemary and vincent: part 3

Some time ago I told you about my Uganda photography workshop friend, Anna, who, during her recent return to the country met two orphans names Rosemary and Vincent. The children (siblings) are from a small village in the Rakai district, an area in which Anna spent a couple of months photographing.

Anna wrote me a few months ago to find out if I thought there might be a chance that the children could go to St. Mary Kevin Orphanage to live and attend school. Once I told her I could try to make it happen, she then had to convince the elders in the village that this might be the best thing for the children. Once the eventual approval from the elders came down, I began working on the logistics of making this come together. The village where Rosemary and Vincent live is several hours from SMK's town, Kajjansi. A young man (whom Anna also befriended) by the name of Francis, who lives in their village, offered to transport the children to Kajjansi.

Anna searched for and found sponsors from L.A. who would pay for the transport. Eventually, Francis succeeded in digging up detailed information about the children -info about their deceased parents, their past, their schooling, their health, etc. I forwarded this on to Rosemary, director of SMK and asked her to consider accepting them into her program.

Rosemary agreed to take them in. Francis then had to figure out how to get the children to Kajjansi, and I had to figure out how to get the sponsor's funds to him.

Just this past week, I was able to finally send directions to SMK to Francis, and well, it appears that after all this manuevering, little Rosemary and Vincent will soon have a new place to call home.

If this all comes together, it will be pretty amazing. A real group effort to help these children. I hope I can post soon about their arrival at the orphanage, and I look forward to meeting them when I get back to Kajjansi this December!

No comments: