jake lyell photography (blog)

I’ve recently been impressed with the work of the agricultural NGO One Acre Fund. While on assignment in Kenya for business magazine “FIVE,” I documented the organization’s work with small farmers. These farmers usually cultivate no more than approximately one acre of land and therefore are usually the most in need. While OAF works in both Kenya and Rwanda, these photographs are from western Kenya’s Webuye district.

Why is One Acre Fund featured in a business magazine? Its model differs from that of most non-profit organizations. Instead of handing out improved fertilizers and seeds, farmers are given loans for these things and organize in groups under the supervision of a extension worker to learn how to use them. The groups then bring their harvests together at the end of the season when One Acre Fund acts as a bulk selling agent, thus commanding higher prices for the farmers. In 2009, farmers working with One Acre Fund increased crop yields at a rate of 100%, with a 98% repayment rate of loans. Currently, 45% of One Acre Fund’s field costs are covered by farmer repayments, a percentage that continues to grow. Sound more like a sustainable business than aid? Let’s hope so.

One of these days I am going to have to get a car, but I’ll hold out for as long as I can. I came to East Africa in part seeking a simpler lifestyle. I enjoy chatting with people around me and getting to know the culture in-depth. I watch in fascination as the preachers and hawkers board at one town, shout and sell to their captive audience and disembark at the next. Getting across the country is cheap and my clients appreciate the transit fees on the final invoice. But bumping around on buses is starting to wear on me. Above, a busy Kampala street as seen from the window of the Teso Coach to Soroti.

The last month has seen me traveling from the shores of Lake Victoria in Tanzania to the remote and mountainous Uganda-Sudan border and various places in between, much of the way spent with my camera hanging out the window. Above, pedestrians on the streets of Lira, Uganda. Below, after months of arduous journey, I reach the source of the Nile.


Toward the end of June I was in Bukoba, Tanzania, on the western (and least accessible) side of Lake Victoria. There I did photo and video work for Computers 4 Africa. C4A takes second-hand PCs and ships them to a school, hospital or institution in Africa that can make use of the machine you thought was out of date. It’s an excellent concept and needs to implemented en masse in order to both create jobs and improve productivity on the continent. Above and below, students from Rugambwa Girls’ Secondary School are recipients of computers from C4A.

Take a moment to experience the hub-bub of the bus park in Mbale, eastern Uganda:

Let’s hope no one’s waiting on this bus for their next paycheck.

Above, open-air passenger lorry in Karamoja. Below, motorcycle taxis, or boda bodas, in Lira.


In Uganda the landscape changes quickly from plains to mountains to bustling towns within a span of a few dozen kilometers. For the northern leg to Kidepo National Park I had to hire a 4 wheel drive, as roads tend to resemble craters more than anything else.

I know I’m not breaking any new ground in wildlife photography, but I am starting to pay more attention to the fauna around me. Stock photo sales, of course, contribute to my motivation. Above, Vervet monkeys in Entebbe, Uganda.

It’s important to travel with in convoy or with armed escort in the Karamoja region of NE Uganda. Though bands of armed cattle raiders are more under control than in the past, they’re still operating. Karamoja is the least developed area of Uganda, and one which I plan on exploring more thoroughly in the future.



Weighing up to 900kg (2000 pounds), the Cape Buffalo is reported to kill the most people in Africa each year, though the hippopotamus is a close rival for this accolade. They travel in massive herds and are able to defend themselves against predator attacks, sometimes even killing lions. On the other hand, giraffes eat leaves and really don’t have to worry about much.

Lastly, a rain storm looms on the horizon. I was caught in this same deluge five minutes later- lucky for that waterproof camera bag.

The streets of Dar es Salaam are a parking lot on the average day. Now that the World Economic Forum has come to town, they’ve become more like long-term storage. I’m on photo and video assignment with PSI covering events surrounding the WEF but much of my time is spent sitting in traffic. This allows for plenty of opportunities for street photography provided one keeps the camera strap firmly tied around the arm. There’s no shortage of heads of state (or even royalty) in town. On Monday I sat across from a personal hero, Morgan Tsvangirai, in a city cafe.

After combing through all the poultry photographs I had taken in the past month, I thought a special blog entry was in order. I then pondered all the chicken puns I could make but second guessed incorporating most of them here, not wanting to derail any future potential writing assignments.

BRAC, with whom I recently spent an entire month in four different countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, is the only NGO on the continent with a poultry vaccination program. As seen here in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Uganda, BRAC trains women from local microfinance groups in animal husbandry, health issues, and vaccinations. Members of the community queue up on vaccination days with their poultry and livestock and are charged a small fee for the service.

The program provides jobs for those performing the vaccinations and increased income for the small farmers whose poultry is no longer susceptible to many of the pests and diseases that can kill livestock or affect production.

Recently I photographed for the first time as a still photographer on a film documentary. The dynamic was a bit different working alongside a film crew and not having the subjects to myself. Still, I feel was able to get some compelling images. The documentary is produced and directed by Christy Turlington Burns (below, right), who in recent years has made efforts to bring the issue of maternal health in the developing world into the spotlight. Entitled “No Woman, No Cry,” the film highlights the difficulties of bearing children in four different parts of the world. I was happy to be part of the crew here in Tanzania.

Some photos from this shoot also appeared in Marie Claire. I also contributed to another Marie Claire article on UNICEF education programs. You can read that here. Look for the release of “No Woman, No Cry” soon.

I’m currently photographing on a four country assignment with BRAC, an NGO based out of Bangladesh. While I wish I could go there too, I’ve just finished up a leg in Liberia and am heading to Tanzania tonight. I first became familiar with BRAC after spotting their program signs at almost every junction in Tanzania directing highway travelers to nearby projects. They gained more attention last year after an agricultural grant from the Gates Foundation, another organization for whom I regularly photograph. Above, a mangrove swamp on the Sierra Leone River in Port Loko.

BRAC works in the areas of microfinance (small loans to individuals), sustainable agriculture, and community health. They primarily work with women and girls in these areas, as women of all ages are more vulnerable in the developing world, more likely to support their families and, as you can see from a past blog entry, doing most of the work here anyway. According to the Gates Foundation, women do about 80% of farm work in the developing world and, of course, a higher percentage of house work.

BRAC started programs in 1972 in Bangladesh, where they are based. Their approach was eventually recognized by the NGO community and began to spread to places like Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Sub-Saharan Africa with the help of organizations/people like the Gates Foundation and George Soros. In 2009 BRAC began programs in two West African countries, Sierra Leone and Liberia, countries that were beginning the recovery process after years of civil war. Below, Eva and Rebecca, twin sisters in Jinja, Uganda.

Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee has expanded dramatically since its founding and now offers international programs in rural and urban areas. Most of my time in West Africa was spent in cities of more than a million inhabitants. Below, a bombed out army barracks in central Monrovia, Liberia’s capital.
I have to admit, I was a skeptic of microfinance before coming on this job. I wasn’t sure that debt in any form, no matter how small, could be beneficial to the poor. I was of the mindset that people in poverty should be given the start up capital as grants, not loans. But if I have learned anything from my time here in Africa, it’s that people seldom appreciate what they are freely given. Below, a young woman receives her first loan in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

For instance, when the World Bank wants to improve sanitation in the community, they don’t begin installing new, improved toilets in all village households. History shows that the toilets provided in this way won’t be cared for or used. The best way to go about improving sanitation practices in such a village is to first train local masons with the proper way to build more sanitary, improved toilets and to provide them with the tools to do so. The next step is to employ a group of local people to educate their community about the benefits of having these new toilets installed in (or just outside) their homes. The group then acts as marketers for these toilets. When a member of the local community decides to invest in one of these new toilets, it is used and cared for properly because the villager’s hard-earned money has bought it. I photographed this very scenario in southern Tanzania last year.

The point is that people use, people value, that which they pay for. The same goes for monetary loans. When women take out a loan in order to begin a small business, they work hard and usually make their payments on time. In Annie Walker’s case (pictured above), she began selling smoked fish on the streets of Monrovia, but with BRAC’s assistance that gradually grew into occupying a regular stall at the local market. Now her customers come to her.

There are a number of organizations in the developing world that have microfinance programs. Some of them are no more than banks. BRAC is unique, however. Many of the borrowers also participate in agriculture or community health programs, which I’ll touch on in later posts. BRAC borrowers meet every week in Freetown, Sierra Leone, as shown above, to pay installments on their loan and to discuss challenges and successes. If a woman is having trouble repaying, BRAC wants to know why and tries to help the family through without penalties, if reasons for default are legitimate.

It was a bold but fruitful move for BRAC to establish programs outside the well-trodden areas of East Africa like Uganda and Tanzania. The dynamic is different in the war-torn areas of Sierra Leone and Liberia, where infrastructure is either poor or non-existent. Above all, capital is being injected into some of Africa’s poorest areas, and women and their families are being empowered as a result.