Helena is a social worker from Belgium that comes to Iquitos, Peru in the Amazon Jungle to help disabled kids, and sometimes adults, in the barrio find the medical attention and schooling that they need.  Armed with a pen and small notebook, she scours the town looking for the kids that have fallen in between the cracks.  She meets with them and their parents to find out how they are doing and what they might need.  A lot of the parents are unaware of the opportunities that exist for them.  Some parents can not read or write and need help filling out the paperwork.  She negotiates getting these disabled kids the medicines and surgeries that they need, along with enrolling them into schools and medical clinics.  I followed her around for many days photographing most of it so that she could use the pictures to gain funds from donors.  Helena also expressed to me that she thought a side effect of me being there photographing her, seemed to be giving her an elevated social status in the eyes of the schoolmasters and hospital staff. They were taking her more seriously, she said, in her attempt to help the kids.  These photographs are from my days with her in the streets, homes, orphanages, hospitals and schools of the people she was working with.

All photos Copyright Hayley Murphy Photography