I have been waiting for weeks to post one of my favorite photographs. This picture is so dear to my heart for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it was so obvious that lives have been changed permanently. Secondly, as a teacher, I fully understood the weight and significance of what I just encountered. Lastly, I realized several months after this picture was taken just how powerful a photograph can be in raising money for those in need.
The narration of this photograph should start months before it was taken. It was May and our trip plans for touring Ethiopia on a fact-finding mission was in full swing. We had learned the dismal situations of the education system for students in rural Africa...well Africa in general had knew we had to do something about it.
One of the many needs that was expressed to us was the desire for chairs and school supplies. Many of these students would walk up to 5 miles a day with only a pencil to sit in a crowded room with zero air flow...on the bare soil.
So fast forward to early-July and we sit outside of a dilapidated school that has been beaten to humility by the sun, wind, and impoverished resources. The students seem excited and so do the teachers. They know something is about to change. There had been rumors, but every time these children have expected a “Western” favor from white people they are often met with disappointment.
However, their callous and cautious faces quickly shifted towards eager anticipation with the faint sound of a diesel engine sputtering in the distance. One kid bolted running with the agility of an Olympian and soon many more followed.
Soon a rusted green truck loaded to the point of overflow appeared upon the parched horizon of the Rift Valley. As the truck came to a skidding stop kicking up mounds of dust in the faces of expectant students, workers unlocked the tail gate and quickly began handing down brand-new desks.
An assembly line soon formed passing desk by desk from the rusted truck into the mud-lined one room school house. These were the first desks many of these students have seen up close, a luxury only reserved for the financial elite of the city. Also important to note, these desks also fueled the economy and gave many men jobs for months at the local welding and woodworking factory. It was truly a life-changing moment for many.
Once all the desks lined up, child upon child began to fill them out of excitement. I watched all the children file into their own seats and immediately began a flashback and comparison of my own teaching experiences. I see so many faces come into my classroom, complain about their seats, and start daydreaming about elsewhere. I loved each one of my students, but they were accustomed to the American education system of plenty. In a sense, it was their first day of school as well...a first day of a promised future.
Soon the teacher walks to the back of the classroom dressed in a white shirt. He is in disbelief. Gratitude shapes every motion of his body and is written upon the canvas of his face.
I soon realize what is happening. This is a class photo...the first of the village of Worja Woshgula. I put my Canon 15mm Fisheye onto my Canon Camera and compose the shot. I don't want to mess this shot up, so much is depending upon it.
Later this picture would make it's way to Africa and to the eyes of many supporters of the Heroes project.
Emerson once said that success is to know one person has breathed easier because you have lived. I don't think I've felt success like this before, effectively empowering 80 students to a better education.
Stebner Photography is a Denver Based Wedding Photographer specializing in Colorado Weddings and Destination Weddings
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