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Lake Oswego's Chellie Kew, a photographer,
has recently returned from South Africa.
She plans to share words an photographs of her African safari during
several upcoming Farmers markets, including Saturday, June 15.
She also will have a booth at markets on July 27 and August 10.
"I spent over two years there, visiting
orphanages for sub-Saharan children whose parents had died of AIDS,"
Kew said. "I've recorded
— in writings, and principally photographs
— my journey: African Journal: A Child's Continent.
The story's a compelling one.
"In Zimbabwe, for instance, whole villages are run by children, the
adults dead from the virus. The bodies lie unburied, the
graveyards full. Meanwhile, Mbeki, the president of South Africa
assures his population that one contracts AIDS by 'drinking dirty
water.'"
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She said the orphanages are secret sites,
at least to North Americans and some Africans.
"Death threats are common if one visits them," Kew said.
"I needed an ex-CIA operative as my chaperone. Garrulous
and rough, whatever his past deeds, he works now to save
abandoned children."
At the heart of her
work is the children. Finding ways to try to help those ravaged
by the AIDS epidemic is truly enormous.
"The extraordinary children are best 'described' in the
photographs. I've
started a fund for the orphans, "The Q Fund," and have shown and
sold my pictures of African children and wildlife in Johannesburg,
Hamburg, London, New York City, Montreal and Portland."
Here's a sample from African
Journal:
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"I lick the blood from my hands and
face. I bury my urine in the sand. Both are tart
scents to the predator, delicious tracks. I walk through
leopard country. The leopard is everywhere in the Namibian
Desert, as common as the street stray of Rome. Three sets of
prints have circled the truck: a donkey's, the impala, and the
third, a cat's. A small one, but that's no comfort.
One must never leave the vehicle,' the embassy representative has
cautioned. But in Africa, all rules are broken.
The decision is made to walk.
The heat will come now. With dawn. The temperature
will rise 50 degrees in the first hour. I have no water.
I carry three figs, a bottle of 'Rescue Remedy,' and my passport.
I bring my passport in case I do not make it back.
"My family will at least be able
to identify the body."
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To view Kew's website, visit
www.qfund4aids.org.
By buying a photograph, the monies go into the "Q" Fund a
nonprofit to help fund the abandoned babies of South Africa.
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