|TOP|World Vision’s London campaign started Wednesday, aimed to attract 1,500 new sponsors for poor children worldwide.

The six-week local campaign opened with a photo exhibit downtown at the Covent Garden Market, featuring the work of Canadian photographs documenting AIDS-affected children.

“We’ve tried to [show] the people living around AIDS, living with AIDS and how they’re moving forward,” said World Vision’s Philip Maher, who travelled with the photography group, known as Photo Sensitive.

“We wanted to say something positive.”

|AD|The pictures illustrate the sick, poor, and needy children around the world, emphasizing the urgent need of support and encouraging people to sponsor them.

A World Vision sponsor would help a needy child in a developing country by supporting him or her with about $35 a month. This will supply the child and the child's community with health care, education and other basic needs. There are now about 10,000 such sponsors in the London area.

When the London campaign ends on April 13, World Vision hopes to have signed up at least 1,500 more, according to a vice-president of the organisation.