1. A Perspective on Compassion
Fostering Transitions AmeriCorps
2012-2013

2. Instructions
• Number a paper 1-8, leaving a line or two to
write after each number.
• View the slides in order.
• Read each slide fully and complete the
instructions before moving on to the next one.

3. “Vulture Stalking a Child”
Sudan, 1993
Photo credit: Kevin Carter

4. 1. Look at the picture. Write down a few words that
describe the feelings evoked by this picture.

5. Perspective
• This picture was taken in Sudan, Africa, in 1993
by a South African photojournalist named Kevin
Carter. The Sudanese people were in the middle
of a severe famine caused by civil unrest and a
corrupt government.
• The girl in the photograph is trying to reach a
UN relief station to receive food and medical
care.
• Carter spent 20 minutes setting up his shot, then
left the girl. He did not help her.

6. 2. Write down several words that describe how you feel
about the girl in the photo, as well as about the
photographer.

7. Perspective
• Kevin Carter received the 1994 Pulitzer Prize
for this photo, which brought him widespread
notoriety and attention.
• Three months later, he committed suicide.

8. 3. Write down a few words that describe how you feel
about the girl in the photo, as well as about the
photographer.

9. Perspective
• The girl’s parents were nearby when this
photo was taken, at the UN food relief station
receiving food and supplies for their family.
• After he took the photo, Kevin Carter chased
the vulture away from the girl.

10. 4. Write down a few words that describe how you feel
about the girl in the photo, as well as about the
photographer.

11. Perspective
• It was later announced that the girl in the
picture had been able to walk to the food
station. Her welfare after that day is
unknown.

12. 5. Write down a few words that describe how
you feel about the girl in the photo, as well as
about the photographer.

13. Perspective
• Kevin Carter received widespread criticism for
this photo. Some said that he was “as
predatory as the vulture.” He was criticized
for not helping the child, and accused of
caring more about the photograph than the
person in it.

14. 6. Write down a few words that describe how you feel
about the girl in the photo, as well as about the
photographer.

15. Perspective
• Photojournalists in Africa in the 1980s and
1990s were told never to touch the victims of
malnutrition or disease, as they could easily
spread diseases to these vulnerable people.
• Kevin Carter later said that he wished he’d
ignored that rule and carried the child to the
relief station.

16. 7. Write down a few words that describe how you feel
about the girl in the photo, as well as about the
photographer.

17. Perspective
• Kevin Carter spent years documenting the
atrocities committed against the people in Africa
in the 1980s and 1990s.
• He and two friends are credited with exposing
the harsh realities of apartheid to the world, and
bringing international attention to the plight of
many suffering African people.
continued on the next slide…

18. Perspective
• Kevin Carter committed suicide in 1994, a few months
after a close friend was killed and another seriously
wounded while attempting to chronicle a violent
uprising in South Africa.
• His suicide note read, “I am haunted by the vivid
memories of killings and corpses and anger and
pain…of starving or wounded children, of trigger-
happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners…I
have gone to join Ken [his friend who died] if I am
that lucky.” He left behind a young daughter.

19. 8. Write down a few words that describe how
you feel about the girl in the photo, as well as
about the photographer.

20. Questions
to be answered in OnCorps
• How did the words you wrote about the girl in the
photograph and the photographer change as you
gained perspective?
• What is compassion? How does it differ from pity?
• How does perspective affect compassion?
• How does your perspective about the people we serve
affect your compassion? How does it affect your
service?