28th April, 2007

DAVID ADAMS

A young boy smiling as he goes about the daily task of collecting water in South Africa. Children peering curiously through a wire fence in Botswana. A boy sitting by the river in Vanuatu.

All the work of amateur photographer Paul Mergard, the images are among those featured in a coffee table book he’s produced as part of a personal mission to tackle issues such as human trafficking and slavery.

CURIOSITY PERSONIFIED: One of the many images of Paul Mergard features in his coffee table book 'Looking for Hope: Shining Light in the Darkness'. PICTURE: Paul Mergard. “I really believe that God calls us to fight for justice." - Paul Mergard

A former accountant, for the past five years the Queenslander has run a Salvation Army missions program called Project 1:8. Named for a verse in Acts 1:8 - "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" - the mission sends out teams to the developing world nations for short- term mission trips, lasting between two weeks and six months.

Looking for Hope: Shining Light in the Darkness was launched last August by Hillsong worship pastor Darlene Zschech and features images Mergard took on trips over six years or so from 2000.

He says the idea for the book came out of a trip he made to Ghana with a friend a couple of years ago.

“My friend and I went over there and we were were visiting one of his friends who is an occupational therapist in Ghana and working as a missionary...” recalls the 32-year-old.

“We pulled up at this clinic and there were these kids looking through the gaps in the timber at school and I took this photo. Then I walked around the corner...at this school and there was this boy standing there looking at me and I took this photo of this boy and as I looked on my camera at this photo I had taken, I thought that I’ve got to do something with these photos. I just really sensed God prompting me in that.”

That was in April 2005. It was another 10 months before he came up with the idea for the book. He had started putting together a mockup for a coffee table when, in April last year, he was preaching at his church about the issue of human trafficking and again felt God stirring something in him.

LOOKING FORWARD TOGETHER: Paul Mergard with Kenyan boy Joanes Odera, one of two children he sponsors through Compassion.

“I felt God saying to me that’s what your book’s for; your book is to raise money for the fight against human trafficking and the fight against poverty.”

Mergard says that while this was the seventh or eighth time he had been to Africa, he had already sensed that God had wanted him to “go deeper.

“It isn‘t just about going and doing mission trips for three weeks and coming home and just continually taking people there,” he says. “It was about my experience in Africa actually going deeper and becoming more significant.”

Noting that it remains the third largest criminal activity in the world after the arms trade and drugs, Mergard says that the issue of human trafficking had “really gripped his heart” last year when he saw a DVD on the issue.

“I really believe that God calls us to fight for justice,” he says. “And it’s just been an issue that has really captivated me and I guess I just want to do something about it.”

“Wilberforce 200 years ago introduced legislation into the UK parliament and stopped the trafficking of people in slavery - the Atlantic slave trade - across British colonies. The slave trade then was about four million people; it’s now anywhere between 12 million and 27 million...people (who) are trafficked every year, which is just staggering.”

To that end, after costs, fifty per cent of the proceeds from the book are going towards sponsoring children through child-focused humanitarian agency Compassion.

Mergard, who sponsors two boys in Kenya through Compassion, says that tackling issues such as poverty helps to reduce the chance of children being sold into slavery.

“A lot of the reason why parents will sell their children is because they’re promised a better life, they’re promised money so they can put food on the table,” he says. “I guess it’s trying to hit this whole issue of the slave trade at both ends because if we can help alleviate poverty then parents don’t have to sell their children. And that’s where Compassion comes into the picture.”

HOPE FOR A BETTER FUTURE: The image that Mergard says symbolises the hope that for him, what the book is all about. PICTURE: Paul Mergard.

The remaining 50 per cent is going toward a Salvation Army project in Mumbai, India, which involves the rescue and rehabilitation of girls as young as six-years-old from the city’s red light district where they have been sold as sex slaves.

While he hasn’t had any professional training, Mergard says photography is a passion.

“The photos in the book...have tried to capture the hope of the kids that I’ve seen in their natural environment,” he says. “The kids that are in this book - they have the same hopes and dreams that our kids would have here except they just don’t have the opportunity that our kids have.”

He says while the stereotypical images of children in Africa - with swollen bellies and flies in their eyes - depicts the harsh reality that many face, what is sometimes missed is that there is a “whole heap of kids out there and they’re looking for hope”.

“They’ve got smiles on their faces and they’re absolutely gorgeous kids, and I just think we have a responsibility in the West to do something for them.”

Mergard says his favorite image is on the last page of the book - one of two boys looking into the camera.

“It was a photo I took in India...” he says. “And that photo has come to symbolise a lot for me because I just look into that kid’s eyes and he’s just got this cheeky, mischievous look on his face; a look of promise. And I just think this kid’s got all the potential in the world but he just needs someone to make it happen for him.”

Looking for Hope: Shining Light in the Darkness can be purchased at Paul Mergard's website - www.paulmergard.com.