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About This Project

 

Witnesses to Hunger is about participation and action.

Witnesses to Hunger is a project about the participation and action of those who know firsthand the experience of raising a child on a limited income. The photographers of the project are mothers and caregivers of young children who used digital cameras to frame the issues most important to them and to their children. Exhibiting their photographs to the public is only the first step in this dialogue. They are using these photographs and their life experiences to inform policymakers and make changes in their own communities. They are living testimony of the need for legislation to put an end to hunger and poverty.

What these women know – and what their pictures show – is how hard it is to nourish a child when every day presents limited opportunities and impossible trade-offs: rent or medicine, heat or breakfast, diapers or fresh fruit.

All too often, policies and programs are created without the participation of the people who are most affected. The true experts on maternal and child health and poverty are the mothers of young children. These moms focus their lenses on their children, on their neighborhoods, on their daily grinds at work and on welfare. They are teachers with valuable lessons to impart. Each of us is invited to look and listen for their guidance.