Post Tagged with: "photographer"

Rubbing Elbows with the Royals

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[…]

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Africa’s True Survivors

I endured photographing in Dar es Salaam’s grueling heat yesterday morning, but it’s nothing compared to what some of these women have gone though. Yes, women get breast cancer in Africa, too. But here the dynamic is different. With limited health care facilities and awareness, most women who have breast cancer are unaware of it and end up succumbing to the disease. Susan G. Komen for the Cure is working to change that. Known for their Walk for the Cure as well as other advocacy and research programs, their scope has gone global in recent years and is now reaching women in Sub-Saharan Africa. Women diagnosed with breast cancer in Tanzania and other African countries have to deal with severe stigma and the temptation to consult traditional healers, as their family or peers may advise. It’s a miracle that about one hundred survivors came out yesterday, donning the pink shirt[…]

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In Gertrude’s STEPS – Catholic Relief Services work with OVCs in Zambia

It can be said that young people have suffered the most from the effects of HIV in Africa. The disease took a devastating toll on the population of Zambia, wiping out nearly a generation of the most economically active and productive members of society, those 20 to 40 years old. But it is the young who are left behind, often to fend for themselves and cope with a disease that is to be their only inheritance. With an HIV prevalence rate of 20%, Mongu District in western Zambia is one of the areas hardest hit by HIV in the country. Below, Nurse Idah Jangazya collects blood samples during a monthly HIV screening clinic at Mindolo Clinic in Kitwe, Zambia. Gertrude Nyambe is a 41 year-old mother of five living in Mongu. At the age of 35 she and her husband were diagnosed with HIV. He succumbed to the disease soon[…]

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Faces of Drought

A more somber side of Kenya’s drought in the Turkana Region compared to my last entry… and a bit of the relief effort by ChildFund. Some more of my video work on the crisis:

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Hope Amid the Crisis – Turkana, Kenya

Many have heard about the horrific drought that is gripping the Horn of Africa right now. I’ve been spending a lot of time in Kenya’s Turkana Region documenting the situation and the relief efforts there. In Turkana the UN has declared a food Crisis: one step below a Famine but one above an Emergency. While I have plenty of images that depict the crisis, today we’ll focus on the positive – the long-term food security projects of ChildFund and the World Food Programme in Turkana, known as Food for Assets. Click play above for a full explanation. The Food For Assets program works to coerce those Turkana living in irrigable areas to learn sustainable farming practices by making the food aid they receive contingent upon their enrollment in the program. It is the hope of implementing partners that after one year of learning, people who have received the training will[…]

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From the Rooftop of Africa

In the past few months I’ve been working in Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. In this video update I discuss and review my most recent work with ChildFund, Right Choices, Computers 4 Africa, the Times London, and Light in Africa from my base in Kilimanjaro Region, near Africa’s highest peak.

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Extreme Hope

Living Hope Education Centre, a primary school in war and disaster-torn northeastern Uganda, is beating the odds. As much as I can, I am an advocate for this school, which is doing wonderful work in the lives of young ones.

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48 Hours in Vintage Harar

It’s hard to believe it had been five years since I’d been to Ethiopia, not counting the many hours of down time spent making a connection in Addis Ababa’s airport. Recently I arrived a couple days early for a ChildFund assignment in this Horn of Africa country so that I might explore an ancient city in Ethiopia’s exotic East. Harar’s meandering old town is other-worldly, a step back in time along the caravan routes of the middle ages. Indeed, if it weren’t for Coca Cola’s stubborn presence inside the city walls it may sometimes be difficult to decipher which decade, or even century, you were losing your way in. Most Ethiopians don’t mind having their photograph taken. It was my original intention to shoot only portraits for these two days I’d set aside. However, I was quickly enveloped in the atmosphere of the town and the eye candy was too[…]

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No Longer Silent

You would think as much as I’ve photographed the lives of women that they were getting preferential treatment here in Africa. Sadly in most cases it is the opposite. Though women are increasingly gaining more roles in government, Liberia’s current president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, remains the first and only elected female head of state on the continent. Although countries like Uganda and Rwanda do have significant female representation in parliament (in both it’s mandated by law), this inclusion hardly ever trickles down to the village level. Last year there was quite an uproar in Sierra Leone when a woman made a bid to become chief. Places where women are marginalized are often places where crimes against them go ignored and unpunished. As part of my most recent assignment with AcionAid, I visited the Women Won’t Wait Centre in Mubende, western Uganda. The center is one of four such locations in[…]

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Do they know it’s Women’s Day?

I haven’t been in the States during International Women’s Day in quite a while. Unless things have drastically changed, I can’t remember it being a big deal there. In Africa things are different. Currently I’m in Western Uganda gearing up to photograph a Women’s Day march and rally as part of a larger assignment for ActionAid. This coming Tuesday marks the 100th annual celebration of the event. Before I get to that however, detailing my previous assignment with the Uganda Women’s Health Initiative couldn’t be more appropriate for the occasion. One of UWHI’s main programs is to deal with the diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer, which is the leading cause of death for women in Uganda outside the child bearing age bracket. A joint study by the Uganda Ministry of Health and PATH found that 67% of bed occupancy in the gynecological ward of Mulago Hospital, Uganda’s largest, is[…]

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