The persistence of global poverty inspires a kind of latter-day colonialism by which good-hearted people from wealthy enclaves receive kudos for travel to places most of us would rather not hear about. While celebrities such as Madonna and Angelina Jolie bring back stories, photos, malnourished babies, and other artifacts of human misery, increased awareness does not usually result in a change of circumstances for the world’s most vulnerable citizens.

This conundrum is present in I Live Here, a collection that finds Canadian-born actor Mia Kirshner journeying to the far reaches of the globe, where she reacts with horror at the sights and smells of refugee camps, brothels full of juveniles, and nations with a large proportion of citizens suffering from what she calls the “wasting disease,” AIDS.

These impressions are recorded in four zine-style chapbooks that combine Kirshner’s diary excerpts, interviews with those she meets, artwork and photo collages, graphic novellas, and short fiction penned by the likes of Ann-Marie MacDonald, Joe Sacco, Karen Connelly, and Chris Abani.

The book presents brief bits of information about these forsaken places – Chechnya, Burma, Ciudad Juarez (on the U.S.-Mexico border), Malawi – but we are left feeling wholly disconnected from Kirshner’s Heart of Darkness journeys. They let us off the hook, because we are not encouraged to see the part we play in creating and maintaining this misery.

The intended audience for I Live Here is unclear. While the format appears designed to attract younger readers, the book comes with a caveat that its contents may not be appropriate for them. The collection’s structure is also confusing, from the lack of page numbers to the difficulty in figuring out whose voice is speaking at any given time. There are no bylines in front of particular chapters, leaving one unsure of what is fiction and what is journalism. And Kirshner’s jottings tend toward the overwritten and, due to the faux-handwriting font, headache-inducing.

The stories in I Live Here are certainly a much-needed challenge to our collective complacency. But a bit more thought about focus, context, and the inclusion of resources for those who would like to take action would have gone a long way to differentiate this package from the print version of a World Vision infomercial.