A Bermudian couple is holding a photography show at the Interim Gallery to raise money for some of the poorest people in drought-ravished Bodhgaya, Bihar, India.

Over the course of two trips to help the charity Privilege Sharing Bodhgaya, Lynn Hunt and her photographer husband Antoine Hunt have snapped many pictures of what life is like in the region.

Mrs. Hunt recently spoke with after returning from a January trip to India.

?We have lots of lovely pictures of India,? Mrs. Hunt. ?This year, all the pictures I took were mostly of the children. They will be on show at the Interim Gallery on March 10. These prints will be available to buy through a donation. All the money will go back towards Privilege Sharing.?

Privilege Sharing Bodhgaya was started by Bermudian Diane Kirwin. Mrs. Kirwin lives in California, but spends several months of the year in India. She often takes Bermudians with her to India to help with Privilege Sharing and to see for themselves the grim situation there.

?There has been no rain for two years,? said Mrs. Hunt. ?What is going on there is a natural disaster. Because there are so many national disasters going on everywhere it is not really spoken about in this part of the world. People don?t really understand the severity of what is going on in India, especially in the North where it is that much poorer. The poverty scale there is much more dense than anywhere else in India, because tourism isn?t as strong there. The tourists tend to be in the south, especially in the coastal areas.

?The only tourists we really get in the North in Bodhgaya are the pilgrimages from the Buddhists. Because tourism isn?t strong in the area, the government is reluctant to spend any money in that area so the people really do have to fend for themselves.?

This was brought home one day, when Mrs. Hunt and Mrs. Kirwin were checking out a village they thought was in need of a school. While they were there they noticed that the village pump wasn?t working.

?The pump hadn?t worked for three months,? said Mrs. Hunt. ?This is a village of 700 people. The one pump that does work is probably two kilometres up the road. It is always the women who have to walk and get water. It is the severity of the famine that is causing the water shortage and causing the pumps not to function.?

Privilege Sharing helped the people in the village to replace the pump, but they found that it was a similar situation in many other villages. Most of the wells are only designed to get water from 60 to 80 feet down, and now the water table is located 120 feet down, in some cases.

?The drought is probably caused by environmental change,? said Mrs. Hunt. ?Global warming is really having an effect. You had those mudslides in the Philippines where they have too much rain.?

Since last reported on Privilege Sharing a year ago, Mrs. Kirwin?s son, Mark has become more involved in the organisation. He was inspired to do so after he narrowly missed being killed by the Tsunami in Thailand.

?That day he was scheduled to go out on a boat trip, but he cancelled at the last minute,? said Mrs. Hunt.

?The boat was lost and everyone onboard was killed. He was very lucky. He went back to the US and formed KIRF which is the Kirwin International Relief Foundation, a registered charity to raise funds for orphaned children and people who have suffered in Asia from the Tsunami.?

Mrs. Hunt said Mr. Kirwin joining forces with his mother in India has strengthened Privilege Sharing.

?The famine has gotten worse since we were there last year,? said Mrs. Hunt. ?KIRF?s focus is sustainable development and women?s issues. They are helping with groups in India. In Bodhgaya there are women?s groups that have started up. They are helping the women of the lower caste families to help themselves.?

One of the things they have set up is something like a credit union. A woman can borrow a few rupees to buy a cow or a goat, and then pay the credit union back later.

Since starting up Privilege Sharing, Mrs. Kirwin has raised money to build a school in a poor village, opened three other education centres, and purchased a jeep to help with medical emergencies.

?The other good news was to go there and see all the Saltus uniforms,? said Mrs. Hunt. ?We have made a wonderful connection with the schools in Bermuda. Saltus Grammar School and Mount St. Agnes and Gilbert Institute gave us some uniforms. We took a big suitcase of uniforms again. To walk into a class room and see all the children in their red and white Saltus uniforms was pretty amazing.

?Since last year, the children?s self-esteem and confidence seems to have increased. They seem more settled. They have some sort of focus every morning, in the midst of their misery.?

Mrs. Hunt said she was better prepared to go to India the second time around, but returning to wealthy Bermuda was still a shock to the system.

?It was the same was last year,? she said. ?It took me a little while to readjust to coming back to the west. In India they recycle everything. It is like going back in time, where people had time for each other and people were compassionate towards each other. I don?t want to romanticise it, and say it is completely like that there.?

In the last year, Mrs. Kirwin has set up a board to oversee the running of the charity when she is not in India. The board is comprised of many influential people in India.

?What I like about this project is that there are Indian people who are devoting their lives to helping the lower caste people,? she said. ?The Indian government isn?t taking any notice of these people.

?The non-governmental organisations and the local people are starting to make a difference in places like Bihar. There is a growing compassion to help people.?

There is growing compassion in Bermuda, as well. An anonymous Bermudian donor recently offered to buy a piece of land to build another school in the area.

?There is someone who has contributed some money for some land,? said Mrs. Hunt. ?When I was there they were looking for a piece of land. The money is there to buy the land. It was a sizeable chunk of money to buy the land. We are very grateful for that.?

For more information about Privilege Sharing, telephone Mrs. Hunt at 296-7513.