Assignment Archives - Page 7 of 10

Assignment

Back to School in Mozambique

August 24, 2012

Only around half of children complete primary school in Mozambique. Those that do attend many times must walk miles each day to reach their school. All too often their classrooms are nothing more than the shade of a tree or huts made of makeshift materials. ChildFund is working with local communities to construct new and improved schools for children in remote areas of the country. Click above to watch an exciting video I’ve recently completed on the program. It’s great to be able to witness the abundance of joy that these children have in attending school regularly. But there’s still a lot of work to be done. Above, six year old Anatercia faces a two mile commute each day to and from her improvised classroom. Below, mothers in her community work on the construction of a new school, funded by ChildFund.

Here are the Headlines

July 16, 2012

In this episode of the Jake Lyell Show, your host reports from the shores of Lake Victoria about recent forays and assignments in places like Rwanda and India. Don’t miss the elaborate Tanzanian wedding cake.

There When You Need Them

July 1, 2012

Take a couple of minutes to see and hear how ChildFund‘s work during the 2011 drought crisis in the Horn of Africa sustained communities and saved the lives of tens of thousands of vulnerable people in Kenya and Ethiopia. Statistics can be very impersonal. In this video I focused on individuals rather than numbers, while still trying to convey the broad geographic scope of the interventions. Shown above with two of her children, Beyenech was pregnant during the time of the drought. Thanks to ChildFund‘s emergency food programs, she was able to give birth to a healthy baby boy while she and the rest of her children still had an adequate food supply. The last time I reported on the drought was to show the dire situation there. Now it’s a year later. It’s great to be able to look back and visit families in the Horn in order to[…]

Mother in Charge

June 3, 2012

I recently completed a couple of weeks in Ethiopia’s Oromia Region. I’ll likely complete four or five videos once the dust settles, literally. Here’s the first. Werdi is the lead mother and manager of ChildFund‘s Early Childhood Development center in Fantale, Ethiopia. In a rural area where girls traditionally don’t receive an education, she’s a bold supporter and advocate for social change in her village. ChildFund‘s work relies on individuals at a community level. The ECD program in Fantale prepares young ones for primary school, and insures they receive proper nutrition and medical care during their crucial early years. It is also successfully navigating complex social customs in order to bring about change in the lives of young people and families.

Fair, Green, & Happy

May 19, 2012

Next time you take a sip of the world’s most popular beverage, think of the hands that harvested it from a hill far away. Many that work on tea plantations around the world are children forced into labor or adults earning deplorable wages. Not so, however, in the fields of Mpanga Tea Growers Factory outside Fort Portal, Uganda. Mpanga is different from the dozens of other growers in the country because it grows Fair Trade tea and is solely owned by small holder farmers. One of my recent clients, Shared Interest, is a UK-based ethical investment cooperative that provided $250,000 worth of capital to Mpanga in the form of a loan. This allowed the Fair Trade growers to expand their business and land on which they farm. Shared Interest is the world’s only 100% fair trade lender. The land surrounding the factory is host to clean, modern schools, health care[…]

Selfless Optimism

April 25, 2012

Both of my most recent videos feature individuals who have made a difference in the lives of others in East Africa by giving their time and resources to assist in the causes of education and women’s empowerment. The above video was shot in Kibera, which is known for being East Africa’s largest slum. I had to keep well on my toes while shooting here, as the neighborhood can be dicey. We hired guides and watchmen to look out for us and to help control the curious crowds. There’s a bit of male-bashing in this piece, but it appears to be well-deserved. For anyone looking to begin a new NGO in Kenya, may I suggest addressing absentee fathers and the break-up of the family. On the whole, women in Sub-Saharan Africa face more challenges than men. Care for Kenya works with women in Kibera and Kisumu, most of whom are HIV[…]

Big-hearted Orthodoxy IOCC in Ethiopia

April 2, 2012

There’s Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle-East, and then there’s Ethiopia. There’s no other place on Earth quite like it. While it’s true that many other cultures also have their own alphabet and cuisine, Ethiopia’s customs and traditions are unique unto themselves. Ethiopia remains the only country in Africa that was never colonized, not to say that people didn’t try. The advent of Orthodox Christianity here in the fourth century created an ancient bastion of Christendom that in many respects remains unchanged until this day. Ethiopia is culturally rich, but materially poor, and a journey here can be both uplifting and exhausting. I’ve recently spent a week here covering some the work of the International Orthodox Christian Charities. While IOCC has a number of diverse programs in the country, including agriculture and vocational training, the photographs shown here highlight their work with the disabled and infirm. Podoconiosis, also known as Elephantiasis, is[…]

Scraping Bottom: Central Kenya’s Water Seekers

March 5, 2012

The trek to the watering hole is long; for some families 20km for the return journey. The load is back-breaking. Because the water itself brings disease and can be deadly, ChildFund New Zealand recently began a campaign to bring safe water to Emali, a district in South-Central Kenya. On this assignment I accompanied several families in Emali on their daily rounds to collect water, walking kilometers on end with them while toting my camera instead of a jerry can. I definitely had the easier task. Click on any of these photographs for a bigger view. It’s rare to see such a populated area like Emali District, only three hours from Nairobi, without access to safe water sources. The land appears lush and green thanks to the recent seasonal rainfalls. Yet families here spend most of their daylight hours walking to and from the sandy pits where they have dug far[…]

Growing Together: ChildFund’s Work in Sri Lanka

February 1, 2012

I’ve just completed nine days in Sri Lanka with ChildFund documenting recovery efforts in rural areas. Schools and community centers were severely damaged during the civil war. ChildFund is building newer, better centers with the help of the local community on the ground. Throughout this, the organization’s educational, nutritional, and growth-monitoring programs continue. They are ever so important here among a population that has been devastated by upheaval. Despite this, Sri Lanka was perhaps the warmest and friendliest place I’ve been in some time, to which these photos will attest. The majority of meals I ate were in homes rather than at my hotel. I shot two videos spots during the week, the first of which is about Dilshan, whose family struggled to keep him in school until ChildFund’s agricultural programs stepped in. The spot will air on cable television in the US, and I have to keep it hidden[…]

Magic in the Numbers

January 5, 2012

Not many of us can claim to have saved 100,000 lives. I recently spent a week in Rwanda photographing jointly for the Gates Foundation and the Global Fund, two of the greatest change-makers in global health today. The Gates Foundation is a major contributor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. Together they save an estimated 100,000 lives each month. Above, a child receives a polio vaccine in a public health center in Kabuga, Rwanda. While health care is a controversial issue across the world, especially in US politics, we in the West might view it differently if were we dealing with the same epidemics people face in places like Sub-Saharan Africa. Here, UN, PEPFAR or Global Fund-supported public health centers are the primary means for accessing care for diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV. Treatment for such diseases would be far out of reach for most[…]