Collective Lens: Photography for Social Change

We've all seen the images and heard the statistics. Hunger--indeed starvation--is something that people face all over the world. Many people in Africa and Asia are just one poor harvest away from starvation. Children in the U.S. will soon be at the end of school, and while many will rejoice, many others will lose the only healthy meals they have had for the past 9 months.

Cholera is a disease most people in the developed world think about very little. It is a bacterial infection that is caused most often by contaminated water supplies. Most of the developed world can take clean drinking water for granted, but that unfortunately is not the case worldwide. Once a person is infected, the chief symptom is extreme diarrhea which can cause dehydration and death within hour if left untreated.

Myanmar has had more than its share of humanitarian crises in recent years. The overall situation is well-summarized by Doctors without Borders.

Many things that happen in our world make me shudder, but few disturb me as much as the use of child soldiers.  Every few months, I see a major news organization run a story on child militias, but for the most part, the terrible things being done to these children are ignored by the media.  For those who don't know, children are used as soldiers across the world in conflicts.  Amnes

Many things that happen in our world make me shudder, but few disturb me as much as the use of child soldiers.  Every few months, I see a major news organization run a story on child militias, but for the most part, the terrible things being done to these children are ignored by the media.  For those who don't know, children are used as soldiers across the world in conflicts.  Amnes

Two years ago, Anna Politkovskaya was gunned down in the elevator of her building.  Politkovskaya was a journalist who was well-known for covering Russian governmental abuses and, in particular, the wars in Chechnya.  Her murder set off numerous protests, and from the beginning, a vocal minority suspected government involvement and doubted that justice would be done in her case.  Four men were arrested and charged with her murder, but now that the case has gone to trial, there is renewed concern about the fairness.