CRUSADE OF LOVE

Fundraiser for AIDS orphans a passion for P.A. woman

Page 3

"What they gave me was a very different understanding of...the important things in life."

-- CHELLIE KEW, ABOVE

ABOVE: CHELLIE KEW - SPECIAL TO THE MERCURY NEWS

GOOD WORK

P.A. woman's photos help African AIDS orphans

By Kellie Schmitt

Mercury News

When Palo Alto resident Chellie Kew looked into the eyes of AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa in 1999, she knew she needed to do something to help them.

Amid so much death and disease, she was struck by the hope in the faces of the "throwaways," children who had lost their entire family to the disease.

So, a year and a half later, Kew, 49, returned to Africa -- with a camera. Her goal was to publish a book with the children's portraits to raise money for a school that would help at least a tiny fraction of the children affected by the disease.

Sub-Saharan Africa includes 24 of the 25 countries with the world's highest level of HIV, according to a July 2004 joint report from the United Nation's Children's Fund and other international organizations. There were about 12.3 million AIDS orphans in 2003, and the population is expected to rise dramatically, the report said.

Kew had lived in Johannesburg, South Africa, for several years with her husband, Kevin, a tech worker. But in 2001, she ventured back alone, into areas she says the American Embassy warns are too dangerous to visit. In the border camps and rundown villages in Soweto, she captured the story of children such as 4-year-old Grace, who worried how her deceased mother would get to heaven without a proper burial, and Ishmael, whose inquisitive brown eyes stare intently at the camera lens as his tiny hand reaches forward.

"It's a love story and a story of my love for children," Kew said. "What they gave me was a very different understanding of the world we live in, and what are the important things in life."

After spending months with orphans in places such as Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana, and surviving a car wreck in leopard country, Kew returned to more challenges in the United States. When New York publishers told her that consumers wouldn't be interested in the 71-page book with photographs of AIDS orphans, Kew published it independently. To promote sales, she packed her Toyota Land Cruiser full of books and drove from Canada to Texas, reading at local bookstores.

Among those who bought the nearly 1,500 books she sold at $30 a copy is Palo Alto resident Dick Bogard, who attended a reading at Books Inc. at the Stanford Shopping Center.

Bogard was so impressed with the project and Kew's desire to build a school that he donated money for a well to be built there.

Oregon resident Paul Koch bought the book after he and his wife, Jean Marie, flipped through and saw the children's faces.

"We really appreciate the photographs, the sensitivity, the life, the anguish and what Chellie was able to create," he said.

Last month, Kew returned to Africa with her 23-year-old son, Octavio, to oversee the construction of a school in Zambia. The approximate $30,000 to build the school was funded with about $20,000 of Kew's money from books, thousands in donations from community members, and funds from the Zambia Ministry of Education.

Kew hopes the school will help create a self-sustaining community. There will be a garden that community members will use to grow food for themselves and sell the extra produce to make a living. Kew has also arranged for African widows to sew the uniforms that she'll buy for the students.

"My idea is to make it a collaborative community effort sustained by the school," she said.

Despite the progress, Kew's last visit was troubling. In the two years she'd been away, the numbers of children orphaned had grown tremendously, and despair was beginning to replace the hope, she said.

"The two years has taken the kids from having hope to seeing too much," she said, her voice wavering as she looked at their photographs on her kitchen table. "It's like their innocence was gone."

The recent United Nations report outlined the need for ensuring essential services such as education for children orphaned by AIDS deaths. After losing caregivers, children have a greater need for stability, care and protection, the report said.

"It's generally assumed in the United States that AIDS orphans are cared for in the way we do in the West through orphanages, but that's not the case," said William W. Rankin, president of the San Francisco-based Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance.

In his organization's work in Africa, Rankin has realized the crucial importance of education for the children.

"If an orphan drops out of school, there is no social support system to catch them at all, and they are lost," he said. "Schooling is of crucial importance."

Kew isn't stopping with one school. She's already working on a project to lead five high school girls and five professional women role models on a summit of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise more money and awareness of the orphans.

The trek, scheduled for Dec. 1, 2005, World AIDS Day, will give the leaders of tomorrow a glimpse into the plight of humankind, and what they can do about it, Kew said.

"Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed, and it's almost like a burden," she said. "But, I keep reminding myself to stay on track: Sell books and build schools."

Contact Kellie Schmitt at: kschmitt@mercurynews.com or (650) 688-7558.