(2019 series) Fine art print on 1.5” gallery wrap canvas, black border edges.

Aissata’s story:

She is one the most strikingly beautiful children I have ever seen. Tucked halfway behind her mother Josephine, Aïssata’s eyes were piercing and breathtaking. My colleague told me that the dress she was wearing was one given to her by Mwana, the very dress our cofounders’ daughter wore. Until this dress, Aïssata had only one tattered t-shirt.

“We have nothing,” her mother told me. It was the first time I actually saw the reality of this statement. The shed of a house was empty. No food. No beds. No furniture. No belongings. Only desperation and illness. As beautiful as Aïssata was, her head was covered in sores and scabs, belying an illness that would keep her out of school now for months.

How many more lives resemble these? The answering reality tempts to overwhelm our efforts completely. And so we stay focused on the ones before us. For just like Aïssata, each has a story, a dignity to be upheld, a new future to unfold.

“Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

Matthew 10:31