Related causes: Arts, Health
During the past couple of weeks I've been asked many times why I chose tuberculosis as the subject for my TED wish. Part of the answer is - that it came from experience. Since the year 2000 I've worked on a number of stories involving global health - and I kept encountering TB wherever I went. That TB is a huge health issue became obvious - as did the immense personal suffering being endured by the afflicted - and their families - people who already struggled to get by on the thinnest margin of existence - who were no longer able to work - spent what little they might have saved for medical care and were sometimes forced to sell their small farms to pay hospital costs. I saw so many people in pain, afraid, their way of life broken. My heart went out to them.
Despite the fact that tuberculosis afflicts a huge number of people - it's not on the radar screen in terms of public awareness. Maybe because TB is a disease of the poor - located for the most part in the developing world - ...Read More
Tagged with: james nachtwey, tb, tuberculosis, ted, ted prize, huffington post
Related causes: Arts, Health
NEW YORK, NEW YORK (October 3rd, 2008) – Award winning photojournalist, James Nachtwey, revealed today the disease XDR-TB as the subject of his TED Prize Wish photography slideshow project. Nachtwey is premiering the culmination of his year long wish project with an eight page spread in TIME magazine, a gathering of global activists and leaders, outdoor screenings around the world and on the Internet at http://www.xdrtb.org in an effort to raise awareness about the disease.
The TED Prize is awarded annually to three exceptional individuals who each receive $100,000 and are granted one wish to change the world. In raising awareness about a XDR-TB, a virulent, mutated strain of traditional TB existent in 49 countries and responsible for over 20,000 preventable deaths each year, Nachtwey comments, “Photographers go to the extreme edges of human experience to show people what's going on. They aim their pictures at your best instincts: generosity, a sense of right and wrong, the abili...Read More
Tagged with: james nachtwey, ted, photography, photojournalism, tb, tuberculosis
