Uncle Craig's Children

The photos are striking, capturing vignettes of ordinary people, ordinary lives. The photographers, though, are by no means ordinary. They are all children who have somehow or the other been affected by the scepter of HIV-AIDS, and they are able to document their own

With the growing HIV pandemic in India, every day lives are being affected, and many children, like 16 year old K.Revati, have parents who are HIV positive or have lost siblings to the disease. Bender, who lives in Amsterdam, had been assigned by the Abbot Fund to visit far-flung countries and document the plight of orphans and vulnerable children who were being assisted by its Step Forward program. "I really wanted to do something from my point of view and as a photographer, this was the best thing I could think of," he says of the photography project. "Give the children the ability to tell their own stories as opposed to those coming from a westerner- the very nature of me coming into their environment changes their environment."

Exhibitions of the project, titled Picturing Hope have been held in Bangkok during World AIDS Day and also at the UN and Asia Society. Many more are planned to give these kids moral support and give AIDS in India a human face. Says Bender, "The children are taking ownership for that responsibility and it's an opportunity for them to step up in their community and talk about their lives, and break down the layers of stigma that exist with regard to HIV AIDS."