Before I became a humanitarian photographer and storyteller, I used to imagine that mothers in low-income countries were somehow different from me. Maybe, I thought, they didn’t feel things as deeply, that hardship had numbed their expectations or dulled their hope for their children.
How wrong I was.
The journey's beginning
Seven years ago, while living in Uganda, I was given a photography assignment from Tearfund’s partner, Compassion, to help introduce our new Infant Survival programme. Mums and Bubs is a life-saving intervention that walks alongside vulnerable mothers and their babies through the first critical year of life, a supercharged version of ‘Plunket’, delivered through in-country churches.
I accepted the challenge and decided the best way to tell the story was to follow three women, Juliet, Kate and Rahuma, through pregnancy to their child’s first birthday. I called it The First Hello.
Walking alongside three mothers
Together with my friend and gifted Ugandan photojournalist, Carol, we documented their pregnancy, birth, 3-month, 6-month, 9-month, 1-year, 5-year, first day of school and, most recently, their 7th birthday milestones.
On each child’s first birthday, when they graduated from the Survival programme and became eligible for sponsorship, my family handed each mum a card asking if we could become their sponsor. They said yes. (And, yes, I got the kids matching clothes. Naturally.)
More than survival
This story was born out of a heartbreaking truth: too many children don’t survive to the age of five. But what I discovered through this journey was far more than statistics. I saw mums just like me, with kids just like mine. There’s no difference in what we want for our children, only in what we can give them.
Seven years later
I returned to Uganda to mark the girls’ seventh birthdays.
Juliet is now raising Christine on her own after leaving an unsafe marriage. “If Christine wasn’t sponsored,” she told me, “I wouldn’t be able to afford school or medicine. But she is. And now she’s the first girl in our family to go all the way through school.”
Kate, who once struggled to provide food, now runs a small business. Her marriage has been restored, and her daughter Pamela is thriving; bright, bubbly and doing so well in class. “When Pamela was born,” Kate said, “I didn’t think we’d get here. But look at us now!”
Rahuma’s journey has been harder. After escaping an abusive relationship, she’s now working two jobs to support her children. Faith is living with her grandmother in the village while Rahuma works, but she remains fiercely committed to staying connected to the Compassion project. “I can’t risk losing this,” she told me through tears. “It’s our anchor.”
Watch as Helen meets these mums and their precious ones, as the years pass.
A mother’s strength
The First Hello has given me a front-row seat to one of the most epic displays of feminine strength: pregnancy, birth and unfolding motherhood. I've seen the quiet heroism of these women; the resilience, the joy, and the fight. I’ve also seen the remarkable power of sponsorship; the way it helps a family face life’s inevitable challenge with dignity, courage and community.
What sponsorship really means
I can’t think of a better story to tell. Because this slow, sustained, faithful presence is what real change looks like.
Sponsorship isn’t just a monthly gift. It’s school uniforms and food parcels. It’s emergency surgeries, business training, and letters that say: I see you. I believe in your future. I’m not going anywhere.
This Mother’s Day, be part of the support that surrounds a mum and her baby with hope.
Through Tearfund’s Mums and Bubs programme, you walk alongside new mothers with the care, nutrition and support they need in their child’s first critical year of life.
Christine. Pamela. Faith. These girls are living proof that sponsorship works.
And I know that—because I’ve seen it with my own eyes, camera in hand, since the very first hello.
Did you know you can arrange to meet the child you sponsor?
Visit your sponsored child