Tearfund Launches London Exhibition to Reveal Everyday Life in Poverty

|TOP|One year following the Make Poverty History campaign, Tearfund is launching a photographic exhibition in London entitled, ‘Walk with Joyce’, which looks to document the way in which poverty affects a woman’s life in rural Tanzania.

The exhibition is open at the Spitz Gallery in East London and will run until 7th May 2006. It has been testified as highlighting the “everyday existence of Joyce Mbwilo and the village community to which she belongs”.

The photographs were taken by award-winning photojournalist Caroline Irby, and act as a reminder of the more-than-a-billion people that are living on less than US$1 a day.

Tearfund explain, “The exhibition tells a story that reflects how western lives can impact people in the developing world. Realities such as climate change and debt have meant crop failure and lack of funding for secondary education in Joyce’s village.”

|AD|The exhibition also reveals clearly the positive effect that a partnership between church in the UK and the developing world can have. For example, a recently installed water tap provided with support from Tearfund has meant that Joyce no longer has to walk ten hours a night to collect water.

Through the photographs a very real, intimate and every day insight into a different culture can be seen.

Irby tells: “My work is motivated by a faith in photography’s capacity to move people: to reduce the distance between the subject and viewer, between worlds apparently unrelated.”

She concluded saying, “These photographs of Joyce and her community provide an opportunity to do just this.”

‘Walk with Joyce’ is on at the Spitz Gallery, 109 Commercial Street, Spitalfields Market, London E1 6BG, from 23rd April until 7th May, Monday to Saturday 12:00 to 5:00pm and Sunday 11:00am to 5:00pm. Admission is free.