Former New York City fashion model Chellie Kew of Lake Oswego has recorded, through writing and, especially, through photographs, her five-year journey in South Africa, where she visited orphanages for sub-Saharan children whose parents had died of AIDS.

     Her book, "African Journal: A Child's Continent," is an illuminating series of faces and stories highlighting the forgotten orphans of South Africa.  Kew feels these extraordinary children are best 'described' in the photographs, as she uses the lens of her camera to focus on the beauty of each child and not on the AIDS disease.

     Kew first traveled to Africa in 1998.  She left a life that many of us have, nice house, nice car, nice job because, as she remembers, "It is as if something just reached out of the sky and said, OK, Chellie, now it's your turn.

     She came back in the year 2000 and could not get Africa out of her mind or her heart.

     "I could not let it go--I felt like it was pulling me back.  I fell in love with the people, the country, the music, the animals.  Just knowing the children were out there--it was such a pull, I had to go back."

     She returned to Africa and started keeping a journal.  Photography was natural for her.

     "I've had a camera in my hand since I was about six years old," she says, "and with this book I hoped to touch the hearts and minds of the reader."

     But the writing was a little harder.

     "At first, I could not write about what I had seen and I had to go to a deep despair to write this book.  In finishing the book, I can now find joy.  I had to go there or I could not write about this subject matter.  It has been an incredible journey for myself."

     She relates her experiences while in Zimbabwe.

     "Whole villages are fun by children, because the adults are all dead from the virus.  Often the orphanages are secret sites, at least to North Americans and some Africans.  Death threats are common if one visits them.  I needed an ex-CIA operative as my chaperone.  Garrulous and rough, whatever his past deeds, he works now to save abandoned children.  Other times I traveled alone."

     By American standards, these children, orphaned by AIDS, have nothing.  But Kew relays what African women have shared with her and what African children are taught that helps them know they are special.

     "The greatest gift a husband can give his wife is their children, so this means African children are born knowing they are the greatest gift of all, and that shines through in their lives," she said.

     Kew hopes to return to Africa in June of this year, because she misses the children.  "African Journal" is the first of three books planned.  The next one will be on the Americas, and the third book will be on China and India.  Through these books, she hopes to raise awareness of orphans affected by AIDS in these areas.

# # #

You can reach Chellie Kew at chellie@qfund4aids.org.