This book is a collection of photographs, artwork, and texts showing the reality of poverty throughout the world – the harshness and also the happiness, achieved against great odds through creativity, love and friendship. The texts are in English, French, Spanish, German, and Dutch.

Some may question whether it is appropriate for men and women to go into very poor areas with only a few books or paintbrushes and crayons in their bags, when there are families who have no home, no work and very little to eat. Yet people welcome them in their communities and homes; they understand that these men and women come to share, not to surplus, but who they are; they feel recognized in their aspirations for dignity, artistic creation and new relationships.

Men and women in situations of chronic poverty in more than 30 countries speak, write, and inspire others to do so. Their testimonies continue the tradition of the Fourth World Chronicles: people bearing witness that chronic poverty can end if all human beings have the means to play an active role in their own development and that of others. The quotations and texts reproduced in this album have intentionally been left unsigned. They complement the emotions evoked by the photographs taken on four continents between 1982 and 1994.

This book was published in conjunction with the second Congress of Fourth World Families (New York, October 1994) and the International Year of the Family.