children Archives - Page 3 of 7

Post Tagged with: "children"

Reaping the Dust

February 19, 2016

There are some parts of Ethiopia right now that haven’t received more than a few sprinkles of rain in over two years. Since so many people live out in rural areas of the country and have to rely on seasonal rains to grow their own food- raising their own vegetables and livestock on small farms- that means the source of livelihood, nutrition, and sustenance for large numbers of people has vanished. Above, a small farmer sifts through the dust of the field he planted last year, but where nothing germinated. Can you imagine having to provide for your family with just a small farm not much bigger than your back yard? That’s hard enough, but take away the water source and it becomes impossible. Below, a woman in Fentale District scoops water from a shallow well. According to government figures, one in ten Ethiopians has been severely affected by the[…]

Magic in the Water

June 8, 2015

You won’t believe your eyes! Many families in rural Africa must resort to collecting water from open, dangerous sources which are often shared with domestic livestock. A solution has been found, however, to bring clean and safe water to families in otherwise desperate need using a new purifying process by American consumer products company, P&G. Here, 9-year-old Johnan, of Uganda, instructs us on the proper steps to take to perform this transformative, life giving, magic trick.

Nepal: The Fear Inside

May 9, 2015

When I landed in Nepal three days after the earthquake, aftershocks were still occurring. They woke me early in the mornings, shook the room, and disoriented me in my tired state. Frightening as they were to me, I can’t imagine what it was like for a child who experienced the full impact of the first quake. Here, Ayush, a young earthquake survivor, recounts his experience of the disaster and how it has affected his family.

A Way Out of Traffic

February 19, 2015

Paid jobs are a rarity in most parts of rural India. In S. Rajasthan children are often either enticed by wages or forced into the grueling labor of the cotton fields in the neighboring state to support their families. A child’s small and delicate hands are gentle on cotton plants and actually assist in their cross-pollination. Girls are more likely to be targets, as their education, compared to boys, is looked upon as expendable. ChildFund International’s anti-trafficking programs, detailed in the above video, work both to rescue children who are victims of trafficking, as well as to provide alternative incomes for families in communities where the phenomenon is most common. Thanks to Christine Ennulat for the assistance on the post-production of the video piece.

Where the Rain Won’t Fall

December 20, 2014

I’ve lived in Africa long enough to watch some kids grow up. I’ve seen a boy struggle with the effects of HIV through his formative years only to succumb to it at the age of twenty. But I’ve also seen an orphan rise to the top of his class, graduate university and go on to be the owner of a successful business. With so many of the children that I encounter here each day, I can’t help but wonder what will become of them in ten or twenty years. Emali, Kenya is divided by the Nairobi – Mombasa highway. It’s not only a physical boundary, but a geographic one as well. The south side of the road marks the boundary of the blistering, flat planes, home to the Maasai tribe, that receive little if any rain at all during the year. The north side marks the beginning of the hills[…]

Connecting the Dots

October 26, 2014

My latest video for Catholic Relief Services is the third of a trilogy showcasing the IMPACT program in Malawi. This piece, an excerpt from which is shown below, deals with community-based child protection programs. In Malawi, one out of three children has experienced abuse before they reach the age of 18. Malawi, in and of itself, is no more dangerous for children than other countries in the area. The problem has been that those working to protect children, from the next door neighbor in the rural village to the Malawi Social Welfare Department, have not been working in coordination with one another. Children have suffered as a result. In some instances cases of abuse have gone unreported, and perpetrators have gone unpunished. IMPACT has successfully connected the various stakeholders through the deployment of family care volunteers and the mobilization of an Orphans and Vulnerable Children Committee in each community where[…]

Water by the People

October 13, 2014

Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll quit as soon as the net you’ve given him breaks. It’s not uncommon when driving across rural Africa to see a hand-pump well that has not been used for some time; not because the water supply has been exhausted below, but because a proper system was not put in place for the construction and maintenance of that well. A well is an expensive thing to build, but it becomes even costlier when a community ceases to receive benefit from it. In remote Bukwo, Uganda, most people still draw their water from unclean and unprotected sources like rivers and streams. Because proper hygiene and sanitation practices are not widely followed, the people that use this water are exposed to diseases like diarrhea and typhoid. “It used to take me two hours to go[…]

Catching Up | Summer, 2014

June 4, 2014

See what’s been happening lately in my work and life. Special thanks to Andrew Ladson from MCC for the photos of me from Namibia, and to Lauren Matthews for the wedding video.

Essential Amharic

March 30, 2014

If there are any words a faranji, or foreigner, might be likely to learn when visiting Ethiopia, wuha and injera would easily make the top five; the former meaning water in Amharic, Ethiopia’s official language, the latter not having an English equivalent. Much of my recent time in Ethiopia was spent documenting the problems associated with getting wuha, easily the most fundamental of life’s necessities, but sadly quite hard to come by in a number of places in the world. The video I shot and produced above shows the difficulties that people living in some rural areas of south-central Ethiopia have in accessing the resource. Fast-paced and polished, this video will be used by ChildFund, Australia in an upcoming campaign to bring water to the area. Ethiopia is not entirely water-scarce; I hate to give that impression. There are places in the country where cattle graze in plentiful, green pasture alongside rolling[…]

Don’t Forget to Write!

March 7, 2014

I’ve just completed a series of videos for ChildFund, International on how sponsors and sponsored children interact with each other. Sponsorship is about much more than sending money each month. It’s about corresponding and encouraging children in developing countries, as well as learning about those countries and their cultures. This short spot shows how Margaret, from Uganda, and her sponsor’s family in California, keep in touch via snail mail, and how her sponsor’s family shares in the dreams for her future. Of the three videos I created in the series Margaret’s profile was my favorite, though you can see others here on Youtube. Skeptical about sponsorship? I have to admit that I was too. You might find an article by Christianity Today, and the science behind it, surprising. It’s written from a faith-based perspective, but the principles laid out here carry over to secular organizations as well.