CHAMPIONS

In 2023, photographer Bastiaan Woudt travelled to Zambia to create Champions — a photographic project made in collaboration with Orange Babies during their 25th anniversary. The work was not planned as documentation. It became something else entirely: a portrait of resilience, dignity, and the invisible force behind survival.

Zambia has one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in sub-Saharan Africa. Orange Babies works on the ground to prevent mother-to-child transmission, support affected families, and create sustainable community care. Champions was born from this reality — but it does not depict suffering. It depicts strength.

Community Mothers are women who have experienced HIV firsthand and now dedicate their lives to guiding others through treatment, pregnancy, and early parenthood. They walk kilometres through villages, visit homes, hold hands, and carry knowledge that saves lives. They are the invisible champions — the ones who keep communities standing.

Woudt photographed these women and their communities with the same formal intensity he brings to all his work: high contrast black and white, deliberate composition, and an unwavering respect for the subject. The result is a body of work where every person is presented not as a case study, but as a monument.

The project was shot over the course of two weeks across multiple locations in Zambia — from rural clinics and community centres to open landscapes and village homes. Woudt worked without artificial lighting, using only the natural light available in each setting. The rawness of the environment became part of the visual language.

Champions raised over €200,000 for Orange Babies through a combination of edition sales, a dedicated auction, and private acquisitions. The proceeds go directly to community programmes in Zambia, funding the training and support of Community Mothers, prenatal care, and HIV prevention education.

Orange Babies was founded in the Netherlands in 1999 and has been working for 25 years to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission in countries like Zambia, South Africa, and Uganda. Through community-based programmes, medical support, and education, the foundation ensures that mothers living with HIV can give birth to healthy, HIV-free children.

Community Mothers are the backbone of the programme. These are women who have lived through HIV themselves — surviving stigma, navigating treatment, and emerging as leaders in their villages. They walk door to door, visiting pregnant women, new mothers, and families affected by HIV. They provide education, emotional support, and a bridge to medical care that many would otherwise never reach.

CHAMPIONS