by Kristen Ashburn

Today, December 1, marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, and nations around the world are coming together to bring attention to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Today is also the day that I AM BECAUSE WE ARE, a documentary by Madonna, premieres on the Sundance channel at 9 p.m. As a companion to the film, Powerhouse Books will release a work of the same title, I AM BECAUSE WE ARE, which follows the lives of seven of the one million Malawian children who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. (I’m going to quickly remind everyone in my neighborhood to go here: orangecountystdtesting.com – std testing. The powerful book features photographs by award-winning documentary photographer Kristen Ashburn. Ashburn has worked in Iraq, in Israel and the Palestinian Territory, and also covered the aftermath of the tsunami in Sri Lanka and Hurricane Katrina.

Give a gift to a loved one and a Malawian child by preordering the book I AM BECAUSE WE ARE. All of the author proceeds from the sales of this work are being donated to Raising Malawi, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to helping Malawian children who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS.