IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers CAPTURING HOPE—Photographer Tony Maddox sits in the viewing suite of his Simi studio below images he took while on a trip to Zambia in 2006. Maddox turned some of his best photos from that trip into an art calendar which he is selling to benefit the children of the capital city of Lusaka. Disembarking from a 20-hour plane ride to the Republic of Zambia in Africa, Tony Maddox took a moment to take in his surroundings: the blue skies, massive clouds and vast, green expanse.

But as Maddox, 43, drove closer to his destination, the capital city of Lusaka, the beauty of the landscape gave way to the reality of life in one of the world's poorest countries.

"Once you start to go into the city, you really start to see the poverty, the shanty towns and people on the side of the road and all these little street kids everywhere," said the 15-year Simi resident. "Then the weight of it starts to settle in a little bit, and you're like, 'Oh, wow, I'm not in Kansas anymore.'"

During his two-week stay in Zambia in 2006, Maddox— along with fellow Simi Sunrise Rotarians Kurt Fredrickson and Pat Abruzzese—visited various aid organizations, orphanages and hospitals to witness past Rotary Club efforts firsthand and to find new places where the group might be able to help.

Zambia, a landlocked country in southern Africa, is home to an estimated 12 million people, 51 percent of whom reportedly live on less than one dollar a day.

Maddox said the trip delivered a "shock to the system"— one that left the professional photographer with the desire to do something, anything, to help the children of Lusaka, most of whom are in need of basic necessities like sufficient clothing, medical care and clean drinking water.

"Until you actually go and you see it and you experience it yourself—you feel like you have an obligation now (to help) because you've been exposed to it," he said.

That exposure inspired Maddox, who is originally from the Midwest, to use his gift of photography to create an art calendar to benefit the children he captured with his lens.

The final product—now two years in the making—will have its debut tonight during a charity fashion show at The Vineyards in Simi at 6:30 p.m.

Instead of focusing on the suffering that plagues the African country, the photographer said he decided to show the young people who are at the heart of it.

"We always hear about the devastation—and it is devastating—but I wanted to show that there's so much life amidst this," said Maddox, who, with his wife, Betsy, has a 6-year-old son named Roman. "These kids are living and going about their life as they know it."

The calendar pictures are mostly of young Zambians, almost all sporting big, toothy grins.

Seeing hope in these smiles, Maddox titled the calendar, "Africa Faces of Hope."

"I wanted to show that there is hope there and that it is in the children, and that is where we need to continue to invest our interests," he said.

Maddox bookends the calendar with his favorite images. January features a young mother cradling a baby against her chest—a shot, he said, that speaks to the fact that so many young African girls are raising babies, whether because of teen pregnancy or because their parents have died and they are forced to raise their siblings.

The photo is vastly different from his other favorite. December shows "two little people full of joy and laughing," he said. Each month of the calendar is sponsored, and Maddox dedicated December to his wife and son and "his Lord Jesus."

Each calendar is being sold for $25.

Maddox's goal is to raise at least $6,000 for Hope Worldwide, a faithbased relief and development organization founded in 1991 that is dedicated to serving the poor and those in need.

Depending on the response, he also hopes to donate money to help Racheal Mofya, an exchange student from Zambia who was critically injured in the Metrolink train crash on Sept. 12.

Maddox said that as an African American his trip to Zambia was particularly meaningful and that it gave him a global perspective on how issues outside one's ZIP code affect the entire world.

"I wish that everybody could travel to Africa or a Third World country because I think it opens our eyes up," he said. "We are our brother's keeper . . . even if he lives in a different country."

To purchase a calendar or find out if tickets are still available for the fashion show, call the studio at (805) 5782399. For more information on the studio, visit www.tonymaddoxphotography .com.