Bleeding Hearts

This week at Media Voices we’re pleased to post a new photo essay by Stephen Shames, Outside the Dream: Child Poverty in America. First published in 1991 in association with the Children’s Defense Fund, these photographs are as timely today as they were when they were taken. Today, one child in six is poor, one […]

This week at Media Voices we’re pleased to post a new photo essay by Stephen Shames, Outside the Dream: Child Poverty in America. First published in 1991 in association with the Children’s Defense Fund, these photographs are as timely today as they were when they were taken. Today, one child in six is poor, one in four will go hungry. The young lives portrayed in Shames’ photographs are a timeless reminder of the work we still need to do in our own backyard. You can view the photo essay here…

I once had a very cynical philanthropist, who’d traveled widely to the poorest places on earth, tell me over dinner that I was a “naive bleeding heart” for wanting to “change the world.” I thought about this for a minute or two and considered the possibilities: I could throw my glass of red wine into his face, which clearly would be a waste, or I could blow him off with some clever retort. I chose the latter and responded by saying something like, ” You’re right, I’m a proud bleeding heart. I can still find my heart. What does that make you?” (Clever eh?)

Now this week at Media Voices we have the contributions of two first-class bleeding hearts, but I’m going to redefine the phrase if you don’t mind and tell you why their work belongs on our site and deserves your support and attention and what I think it takes to qualify as a certified “bleeding heart.”

Stephen Shames first came to my attention as the still photographer whose work captures the experiences of poor children in America in a graphic, human and timeless way.

Homeless, Kevin (11) sleeps in the front seat of the family car. A 13-year-old brother sleeps in the back. This has not been an easy life on the kids, says their mom, The other kids call them hobos. 1985.

Marian Wright Edelman calls Steve ” a tremendous asset to the disadvantaged children of this nation…his photographs bring the plight of poor children to the mainstream public.”  Steve’s photo essay, “Outside the Dream“, which can be viewed in our MVC photo library,  captures what it means to be a poor child in the richest country on earth.  For over forty years, Steve has committed his energy and passion to work that will benefit children all over the world. A visit to his website provides a window into his extraordinary body of work.

Steve’s photo essay, Outside the Dream- Child Poverty in America is the perfect companion to this week’s Viewpoint by Jamila Larson. Jamila is the Executive Director of the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project in Washington, D.C.  As a social worker and the co-founder of the organization, Jamila has seen the impacts on families and their children of living in poverty with no safe place to call home.

Max kisses his sister Vanessa in the hallway outside their room in the Holland Hotel in Times Square. Max, like many poor youngsters, provides child care for his sister. This hotel provides no child care or play room for the children, who must play in dangerous hallways. One-third of homeless shelter residents are children and their families. 1987.

The world she describes in her articles for Media Voices, isn’t limited to our nation’s Capitol however. Today, more children than ever are homeless, liable to go to bed hungry and are exposed to the violence, drugs and crime that accompany the poverty of their lives. Jamila’s focus has always been the children. Her solutions are pretty basic and they’re the baseline for her organization’s approach:  give these kids back their childhoods by offering them a chance to play, give them the attention and love that children need to thrive, listen to them, show them the world beyond their experience, encourage them, help them to dream and show them that dreams are possible.

I asked Steve to write for us this week at Media Voices and he’s also chosen dreams as his subject. In this case, it’s the dreams of poor children in Uganda, former child laborers, child soldiers,  and  orphans who hope to create a better life for themselves and their families by getting an education.  Not content with place-holder solutions, Steve has founded L.E.A.D. Uganda to foster and educate generations of children and give them the tools to lead and contribute to their country and communities. The power of education to make change is on full display here. Imagine a penniless orphan or former child combatant finishing college and becoming a doctor or a social worker or a teacher. These are dreams carefully nurtured by “bleeding hearts” like Steve and Jamila.

6 to 8,000 children, called "night commuters",walk from their homes and sleep each night at St Mary's Lacor Hospital because they fear being kidnapped by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and forced to be child soldiers or sex slaves . Most are 10-year-old but some are as young as 2. (source Medecins Sans Frontieres)

So, a new definition is in order for this much over-worked phrase, bleeding heart, especially in this era of social engagement and activism. Here are a few things I’ve noticed about the people who do the work we bring you week after week and are part of the community who work for children. This is what I think a bleeding heart should be…

They are passionate about what they do. They walk, talk, eat, sleep and breathe it. Somewhere along the line, they met a child or a family or saw something so horrific , so obviously wrong that they couldn’t push it away. It got to them, needled them into taking action. This transformative moment, and it could be more than single moment, started the ball rolling and they’ve been at it ever since. They adapt their professional skills to solving the problems at hand. They spread the word, enlist others, start organizations, volunteer their time, spend their own money, surrender conventional ambitions and become entirely about working for change. They’re smart and adaptive. They keep at it for decades, are devoid of cynicism and they don’t go away or give up easily. They work hard at what they do and they make a difference in the lives of children and families they touch. They believe in dreams.

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Original source : http://mediavoicesforchildren.org/?p=4968…