Dispatches from the heart of Africa

Over two million children in the central African nation of Uganda have been orphaned by AIDS and 110,000 of the country’s infants are infected by the disease. These are the stark statistics facing those who are trying to counteract the AIDS epidemic – and in doing so to make a real difference to people’s lives there.

Hot Press photographer Emily Quinn travelled to Uganda in August to meet one such individual. Irishman Brian Iredale, a former nurse, set up the A-Z Children’s Charity in 1997 with his Ugandan wife Annet. The couple met by chance when she nursed him back to health after he had contracted malaria while travelling through the country. The charity was set up shortly afterwards to invest in Annet’s home community of Nansana, with particular focus on the children of the village affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Quinn’s partner is a director of A-Z and she was approached earlier this year to travel there to shoot some images for use in the organisation’s fund-raising drive. Once she arrived however, the plans changed. “Initially I went over just to shoot their stock shots, but then I thought, let’s make an exhibition out of this,” she recalls. “I brought down four cloths that I wanted my subjects to wear – two to represent the charity’s colours (yellow and pink) and then terracota and blue ones as well, to represent the ground and the sky, which is pretty much all you see in Uganda as there’s not many buildings there.” The result is some stunningly beautiful pictures that capture the elemental nature of the place as well as the humanity of its people.

A-Z works at a local level, directly sponsoring 150 children for whom it provides school fees, stationary, uniforms and meals to enable them to be educated and go on to live an independent life. The charity also supplies anti-retroviral medication to HIV-positive children and undertakes business and loan management training to ensure a sustainable future for those affected by AIDS. Quinn had just a week to meet those who had benefited from these initiatives and shoot all the images she wanted, making for a busy trip. “We shot in the morning, the afternoon and the evening. We were working the whole time as we had so much to shoot,” she says. This was her first time working for a charity in the developing world and she was surprised at how basic the worker’s living conditions were. “There’s not much electricity in the evenings as it’s turned off at a certain time. They also turn their mopeds off as they go down hills to save petrol – it’s the same price it would be in Ireland, which is very expensive relative to what they earn.” Despite the seemingly grim realities of life in the equatorial nation, Quinn found the people to be unfailingly friendly and optimistic in their outlook. “The affirmation of life I received for giving my time and energy was the most beautiful and priceless gift anyone could give me.”

Emily Quinn’s exhibition Uganda In Colour launches on Tuesday December 4 at 7pm in Gallery Number One, Castle Street, Dublin.