hygiene Archives - Jake Lyell

Post Tagged with: "hygiene"

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[…]

Wings to Fly

August 23, 2013

We often think of Africa as a continent of wide open savannahs and an endless expanse of acacia trees. We fail to remember the massive megalopolises of Kinshasa or Lagos and the seemingly endless expanse of slum dwellings that exist in the urban shadows. It’s true that more so than other regions of the world, Sub-Saharan Africa’s population is rural; about 65% of people live in rural areas. But needs exist in both cities and villages here. The above video documents two families participating in ChildFund’s Early Childhood Development Program in Kenya, known as ECD. Solomon’s family lives in rural Samburu County, a traditional village where the main source of livelihood is cattle rearing. Anabel’s family lives in the crowded Mukuru slums of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, where poor hygiene and sanitation practices contribute to the spread of disease. In both areas, food security for families is a problem. The ECD[…]

Focus on Early Childhood Development

July 19, 2013

I’m currently half-way through a series of videos highlighting ChildFund’s niche-core program, its Early Childhood Development program, known as ECD. It’s an assignment that, once completed, will have taken me to six different countries on four different continents. In a country where children battle with epidemics like malaria and malnutrition, ChildFund’s ECD program in India is not just allowing kids to survive, but also to thrive. By working with parents and caregivers to target children in the first five years of life, ChildFund transforms the communities in which children grow, allowing them to reach their maximum potential in life.

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[…]

Rubbing Elbows with the Royals

December 8, 2011

His Royal Highness, Prince Charles, recently stopped by WaterAid projects in Dar es Salaam as part of his state visit to mark Tanzania’s 50 years of independence from Great Britain. His Royal Highness didn’t seem bothered by Dar’s extreme heat and kept tradition by wearing his trademark double-breasted suit. No one knows the identity of the man immediately to the left of the Prince in the above photograph. I took great pains to try to find out for captioning purposes. In spite of the tight security, the unidentified man managed to inch his way up to His Royal Side during the tour, making him the ultimate party crasher. It was clear he enjoyed being photographed, however, as in most of my photos he preferred to glare at the lens rather than schmooze with the Prince, as shown below. He disappeared right after His Royal Highness made his exit. Our uninvited[…]