One of my cardinal rules for photography in West Africa is to never promise to give my subjects a copy of their photo. It is impossible to guarantee you will be able to get a print made and sent back to Africa from the US, not to mention the difficulty of finding the subject in a village without street addresses or even PO boxes. Especially since my trips are always missions-related, it would be a bad witness to make such a promise and not deliver.
A bonus of following that rule is that if you do manage to get the print to them it makes for a great surprise. I found out recently that sending photos back is not only a treat for my photographic subjects but for me.
Following are some images Mark Coppola, a volunteer, took of the church members in the extremely remote village of Porungon. I had taken photos of their church service back on December 23, 2007 and had sent prints back to Tommy Harrison to distribute. It made my day to see the people crowded together looking over the photographs. It also excites me to think that these may be the only photos some of these people have of their friends and loved ones.