Often, HIV is passed on from mothers to their children during childbirth. This child was born using a Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) Kit, which allows mothers to go to hospitals in order to have their children in a clean environment. As a result, this child was born without the HIV virus.

This is the mother and her child who is featured in the photograph above. She had just returned from the local health facility where she learned that her child is HIv negative.

During a Sunday afternoon program, children and caretakers come together in order to learn about living as an HIV positive individual. Because they can gather together, they feel more comfortable talking about what struggles they must overcome living with HIV. The boy above listens intently to a lecture on how to take HIV drugs and advice for keeping up with this regimen.

The mother in this photograph proudly shows off her child who was tested and found to be HIV negative because she was able to give birth to the child using the PMTCT Kit. During my internship, I conducted interviews of some of the mothers who were beneficiaries of the kits and who lived in rural villages. This photograph was taken after one of these interviews.

The woman in the foreground of this photograph was the youngest mother whom I interviewed; her older sister sits in the background. The two sisters raise their children together and on their own because the older sister's husband life was taken by HIV/AIDS and the younger sister's husband left her when he discovered that she was HIV positive.

These children enjoy the local rainy-season fruit in Gulu--the mango--on a long, hut summer day.

A child in the marketplace becomes puzzled by the acitivity that surrounds him and is drawn to the sound of the snapping camera above his head.

The mother above is another beneficiary of the PMTCT Kit. Although her future is dictated by what she is able to do as an HIV positive individual, she knows that she has just opened up many doors for her child by giving her the chance to live as an HIV negative individual.

While in a village on the outskirts of Gulu, I came upon this young child munching on a mango. Although I didn't know her specific story, I felt as though the depth of her eyes were a testament to the idea that she is part of a story that extends beyond her years.