See below, under "Deeper Perspective"
It is all too easy to write off sub-Saharan Africa as hopeless. All that we in the West ever seem to hear of is war, famine, disease, corruption and dire poverty.
These photographs were taken at or near Ngamo Primary School in Hwange, a rural village in Zimbabwe. The children in these pictures live under a brutal dictatorship and lack most of the amenities of modern life. As in much of sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS, famine and malaria have taken a terrible toll on this village. The pharmaceutical cocktail routinely used to arrest AIDS in the West is an unaffordable luxury in Zimbabwe. Since most children who lose one parent to AIDS soon lose the second, as well, the oldest child typically becomes the head of the household as soon as AIDS strikes. Starvation has repeatedly stalked the region, most recently, just two years prior to my 2010 visit. Even now, most children come to school without having eaten breakfast and few have any lunch to eat. The children walk as much as three miles each way to the primary school, which has no electricity and very few school supplies. Since the nearest secondary school is 6 miles away and there are no buses at all, few children continue their education beyond age 14.
Despite all of these problems, the children appeared neither downcast nor envious of Western visitors. To the contrary, they were outgoing, enthusiastic, neatly dressed, attentive in class and uncommonly curious. Although we shared no common language, they seemed positively exuberant in their interactions with us. The children seen running in one photograph actually were running into, not out of, class. The boy in the orange hood peeking out from behind a classmate in another photo seemed to be opening his heart to me.
How can we explain this attitude and behavior? One factor undoubtedly is the school’s dynamic headmaster, Mr. Johnson, shown in another photograph. Shepherding this school seems to be more of a mission than a job to him. Clearly, he is quite progressive, since he voluntarily chooses to have only one wife and to educate his daughters as well as his son.
Another positive factor seems to be the Western aid which benefits this village and its children (Golden Circle Foundation alone has contributed well over $100,000).
Yet these factors seem inadequate to fully explain the joy and openness that we saw, which I attribute largely to the innate resilience and optimism of children. Give us half a chance, they seem to say, and we can overcome any obstacle. And to this observer, it truly seems that they can.