At a massive campaign rally that seemed at times more like a victory celebration, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni touted the achievements made under his National Resistance Movement’s leadership during the last decade. After detailing agricultural, educational, economic, and infrastructure improvements, he painted his various rivals as untested and risky choices. Throughout a slew of performances by Ugandan pop stars, “No change” became the slogan of the day. Mr. Museveni has been in power for over 25 years. However, if this crowd has anything to say about it, the recent trend of deposing long-term heads of state won’t carry over to the streets of Kampala. Ugandans go to the polls to elect their President for the next five years on Friday. Behold at last, the True Chapeau…
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Streets Heating Up | Kampala, Uganda
Uganda’s opposition parties are rallying the faithful ahead of Friday’s presidential and parliamentary voting. Today, presidential candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye campaigned in downtown Kampala to enthusiastic support. Dr. Besigye is the front runner of all the Presidential challengers to Uganda’s incumbent President Yoweri Museveni. Along with supporters of his IPC party (Interparty Cooperation), he took to the streets of Kampala today for a last-minute push of campaigning ahead of Friday’s presidential vote. The crowd was raucous, taking on almost a militant tone. One vehicle in his caravan was decorated to resemble an army tank. Many voters are frustrated that President Museveni has yet to stand down from office after more than 25 years. Dr. Besigye, speaking from the roof of an SUV, had a message for those politicians clinging to power: look to the streets of Egypt and Tunisia. There was indeed a lot of energy on the streets today.[…]
Read Moreold habits die hard – images from Kenya’s Maasai land
I’m currently on assignment with ChildFund in Kenya working on a television spot that will air in the US. The video concerns solar panels that the NGO has placed in schools and dormitories in two separate areas of the country. These photos come from remote Maasai land, north of the Tanzania border – far from any tarmacked road or mobile phone tower. The solar panels, which were of great help to me when charging camera batteries, are even more useful to the girls at Nanin’goi Girls’ Primary and Boarding School in Mosiro, Kenya. Here students can study in class and find their way around the dorms without relying on kerosene lanterns after the sun sets just after 6pm each day. ChildFund continually works with the elders of the community to ensure that the girls of the school are not subjected to early childhood marriage and female circumcision, practices still very[…]
Read Morefeatured in Marie Claire…
My photographs appear for the third time in this month’s Marie Claire. The magazine does a good job keeping its readers informed about what goes on in the lives of women throughout the world. For this article MC took a look at five different women in different countries on four continents, comparing their salaries and lifestyles. The subject of my photos, Rachel Jama, whom I shadowed for a day in Soroti, Uganda, was the most unique of all the women. Read the article and see if you don’t agree. The January 2011 issue is on stands now.
Read Morea (re)productive year
With assignments in six different countries throughout the world, PSI has filled up at least a terabyte’s worth of hard drive space in RAW and video files for me this year and has kept me busy enough to fall behind on my blogging. While Population Services International has programs in a number of areas in global health, I’ve primarily been documenting their reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention programs along with the lives of the women who have been helped. All of the following were taken in Mali, Cameroon, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Above, Kono Cecile receives a hormonal implant in her arm at a clinic in Yaounde, Cameroon. The implant will prevent her from having children in the next five years and allow her to concentrate on better raising the children she already has. Banconi is a crowded suburb in Mali’s capital, Bamako. Mariam Sangare, shown above at her children’s bath[…]
Read MoreOne stop shopping
Take five minutes to explore Obalanga’s weekly market, the largest in NE Uganda’s Amuria District. Here people come from surrounding towns and districts to buy and trade, make repairs, catch up with friends, and hear from politicians and itinerant preachers. The predominant language heard here is Ateso.
Read MoreMourning the Loss of Grace
I honestly thought she would make it. I’m not even sure I would have started this story if I knew she wouldn’t have. Wednesday after midnight I got a call from Sarah. “Mtoto yangu amekufa,” she repeated over and over again on the phone hysterically, “My child has died.” I went immediately to the hospital where I was the only one there to mourn with Sarah. Several times I almost pulled my camera out of my bag to start shooting but it just wasn’t the time. As the sun came up, I rode in a taxi with Sarah to the village of Abia, where she returned with Grace’s body to bury her along side her late husband. Here, friends of her late husband mourn with her. Grace was the last surviving member of her father’s family, all of whom fell victim either to the AIDS virus or to LRA invasion[…]
Read MoreSaving Grace
Two weeks ago, Grace seemed like any other nine year old girl in northeastern Uganda’s Amuria District. She was attending school and helping her mother around the house. Suddenly she was unable to hold down food. The medicine her mother bought at the local clinic was of no help. Now Grace hasn’t eaten in over two weeks and weighs just 13 kilos (28 pounds). Sores on her lips and mouth make any ingestion of food far too painful to bear. Grace’s mother, Sarah Kembi (27), found out that her daughter was HIV positive only two years ago. Since that time Grace has been taking Septrin, a stabilizer drug that, while not an ARV, still reduces the chances of opportunistic infections. Sarah’s husband, Grace’s father, succumbed to AIDS around the same time Mrs. Kembi figured she had better get her daughter tested. Though Grace was likely healthy enough to forgo ARV[…]
Read MoreMachines & Animals
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[…]
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