Despite all the trauma and pain that Grace, a ten-year-old Ugandan orphan, had been through, freelance photographer Dee Storey could still see the light and sparkle in her eyes.

Grace’s photo shows a child who has lost both of her parents to AIDS, yet remains joyous and youthful despite the suffering.

It is just one of 22 images taken by Mrs Storey, which tells of the inspiring people she met during an enlightening trip to rural Uganda last year. The photographs will be on display at Bermuda Society of the Arts at City Hall starting on Friday, with proceeds going to support the ISIS Foundation’s Ugandan programmes.

Mrs Storey, an executive assistant at Validus, had always dreamed of getting involved with photo philanthropy and using her passion in photography to give back in a meaningful way.

So when her then-employer Aspen, a global insurance and reinsurance company, launched a competition giving a handful of staff the chance to spend time at the ISIS Kiwoko Hospital for women and children in the bush of Uganda, she knew she had to apply.

Mrs Storey counts herself “extremely fortunate” to have been chosen as one of nine staff from around the world to be part of last year’s ISIS Ambassador Team.

From the moment she got to the country, the Ugandan people welcomed her and made it a truly memorable experience.

One of the people she met during her travels was a 90-year-old grandmother named JaJa who wept when she saw a photo of her family taken by Mrs Storey.

The photographer said: “I had already met her ten-year-old grandson Stephen, who helped to run the household, do the chores and take care of his grandmother.

“His father died of AIDS and his mother left so I gave them a Polaroid picture of the family and there was a tear welling up in JaJa’s eye when she saw it.

“She was very moved. So a picture is worth a thousand words in that sense.”

When Mrs Storey got the chance to meet Grace, along with 60 other children at an orphanage in the Nakaseke District of Uganda, it proved to be another special moment.

As a mother of two young boys herself, seeing their ‘beautiful faces and curious eyes’ caused her heart to melt.

Many of the youngsters had lost their parents to AIDS, some were even living with the disease themselves.

Due to stigmas attached to the illness, the children didn’t have a lot of friends or family to interact with. Mrs Storey could see it meant a lot to them to have the volunteers there to play games and spend quality time with them.

She met another little girl at the orphanage, whose photo is included in the exhibit. Mrs Storey said she likes the picture because it shows how sorrow and immense joy can exist side by side.

“In a world where every day over 700 children are newly infected with HIV and 5,700 people contract HIV per day — nearly 240 every hour; where malaria takes more than 100,000 lives a year in Uganda; where children are left motherless; where families are torn apart, joy could seem unattainable,” she said.

“Yet, the faces show life. Hope has been restored for so many.”

Although she doesn’t work for Aspen anymore, Mrs Storey made a promise to share her photos.

“My hope is that I can tell their stories through these images and that people can see them as individuals,” she said.

“There is something in their eyes that’s just so inspiring. Although there’s a lot of sadness and poverty, there is a whole lot of richness in their everyday living.

“They have a strong sense of family and community, which comes through, and I was able to capture a few moments in time that documented that.”

Aspen has partnered with the ISIS Foundation since 2007.

ISIS is a Bermuda-founded international development organisation which works with communities and local partners to promote the well-being of children and families in Uganda and Nepal.

Through Aspen’s help and support, the foundation has been able to provide the Ugandan healthcare facility, Kiwoko Hospital, with a new and expanded neonatal intensive care unit that treats around 1,200 babies each year. It also has helped set up a brand new maternity ward which provided care for 6,000 mothers last year.

Today Kiwoko Hospital is an award-winning hospital servicing a population of 500,000. In 1986, it started off as just a small clinic situated under a tree.

Mrs Storey’s photos will be on display in the Edinburgh Gallery at BSoA at City Hall from August 8 to 26. There will be an opening reception at the gallery held on Friday at 6pm.

Useful websites: www.acestudios.bm; www.isisgroup.org