In mid-2006, master printer Michel Karman and photographer Annelize Bester conceived The Children of Botswana: A Humanitarian Photography Collection as a collaborative initiative supporting the education and visibility of Botswana’s HIV/AIDS-affected and disadvantaged children.

Produced between 2007 and 2014, the project brought together over 50 children between the ages of eight and seventeen, alongside SOS social workers, volunteers from the Anglican Diocese of Botswana, and local community members, to photograph Botswana through their own eyes.

The project utilized the plastic Holga camera paired with Kodak Tri-X medium format film — a combination chosen for its ability to render a distinctly poetic and human image. Rooted in Bester’s early darkroom training at ArtCenter College of Design under photographer James Fee, the medium became central to the project’s visual language: intimate, imperfect, and deeply observational.

More than an introduction to photography, the initiative was designed to encourage both empowerment and responsibility. Through the act of image-making, participating children were encouraged to understand not only their own rights, but also their role within their communities and toward one another — fostering dialogue, agency, and social awareness through collective participation.