East Village photographer Q. Sakamaki traveled to Cambodia last month to document the toll that country’s crushing poverty and AIDS epidemic is wreaking on its children. Most affected is the large population of orphans, most of them known as AIDS orphans. Some have congenital H.I.V. contracted from their mothers. However, many are children of parents with H.I.V./AIDS who — if they are still alive — in addition to being poor, are physically unable to care for them. It’s also believed AIDS is causing a higher percentage of children being born with cerebral palsy. Many families, especially those devastated by AIDS, are so indigent they sell their young daughters into prostitution. Other families literally live in garbage dumps, scavenging daily for food to eat and recyclables to sell. In a happier story, however, AIDS orphans living at the Aspara Arts Association in Phnom Penh are learning to become dancers.
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