The House is Small but the Welcome is Big - Mozambique

'The House is Small but the Welcome is Big' explores the impact of HIV/AIDS as experienced through the eyes of women and children living in South Africa and Mozambique. African Millennium Foundation worked in collaboration with the Venice Arts, UNICEF and local NGO Reencontro to teach documentary photography to children who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS and are now caring for their younger sisters and brothers.

Our mission is to ignite youths’ imagination, mentor their creativity, and expand their sense of possibility through high quality, accessible media-based arts education programs; and to serve as a catalyst for people of all ages, living in low-income or underrepresented communities, to create and share personal and community stories through photography, film, and multi-media.

The Welcome is Big

Children orphaned by AIDS living in Maputo, Mozambique spent time with American photographers and filmmakers to produce a body of work that documents the joys and challenges of daily life.


The House is Small but the Welcome is Big (official site)
Home is Where You Find It - by Alcides



Neal Baer
Storytelling is our basic way of communicating our dreams, our hopes and our fears. Yet many stories go unheard, stories that could move us, stories that could motivate us to take action, because the poor and the disenfranchised too often do not have the technology to tell their personal tales. BYkids gives these youth a voice, by giving them a camera and a mentor. Now, through the work of BYkids, the world will get to see and hear their moving stories. What better way to share my love of storytelling than by helping young people who are aching to share their lives?

Christopher Zalla
One of the greatest things about film is that it speaks the universal language of human emotions that transcend cultural boundaries. I hope that by empowering a child to learn basic filmmaking, we can give him/her the tools to capture those emotions, and the power to speak that language. Though the clamor of our busy world will no doubt drone on we can help add a child’s voice to that din, and just maybe, open up a new conversation.

Related links

The House is Small but the Welcome is Big (official site)
BYKids