“During that month,” he told me, “I would sit with families in their homes in Kibera for an hour or two, talking. And by the end of our conversation, they would have pulled out these amazing, old photographs from shoeboxes that they had never shown anybody outside of their own family. This documentation of the Nubian community was something that nobody had ever seen before. So the pieces of this project were already all there

The Freedom to Create Prize celebrates the power of art to fight oppression, break down stereotypes and build trust in societies where the social fabric has been ripped apart by conflict, violence and misunderstanding. History shows that prosperous societies are founded upon creativity. Societies that encourage artistic expression build strong foundations for economic, political and cultural development. They will lead tomorrow’s world.

At Place de Marron Camp there is a strong sense of both supportive camaraderie and angry desperation. Preparation for the Monday protest again President Preval was ongoing, with angry demands for work, food, solutions. The leadership and response vacuum from the central government continues, and despair and anger are mounting.

All is not lost when people such as these give their time and resources so readily to help children that are most at need. Two agencies. and individuals, that fit together admirably to try to meet some of the needs of children of less than fortunate circumstance are People Improvement Organization (PIO) and Kids International Dental Services.(KIDS)

” We provide dental care to children in orphanages where they come after being abandoned by parents, family members. They are forgotten children of sex slavery, dead parents of AIDS, gang violence, street accidents. We have seen and treated over 1000 children during our stay in Cambodia”.

Kathleen Hennessy is the Director of Photography at the San Francisco Chronicle and has just joined PhotoPhilanthropy as the Activist Award Director for 2010.

I asked her everything that came rushing into my head. What is your editing process like? And how do you think photography creates social change? And what advice do you have for people submitting photo essays to PhotoPhilanthropy? Here’s what she said.

As photographers, we are often in the unfortunate position of taking from subjects less fortunate than ourselves without giving anything back.

Highlights from the Collective Lens Flickr group.

Julien Harneis’ photos from the Democratic Republic of the Congo tell us a story of hardship and hope. He is in Eastern DRC, near the Rwandan border, as UNICEF Chief of Field Operations working to alieve the problems of displaced populations, including child soldiers, sexual violence, poor education, unclean drinking water, and health and sanitation issues.

“When two homeless people pass each other on the street, they may share a look, and in that moment, without speaking, they have knowledge of each others’ lives.”