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[…]
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Saving 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 Moregrowing up with One Acre Fund
I’ve recently been impressed with the work of the agricultural NGO One Acre Fund. While on assignment in Kenya for business magazine “FIVE,” I documented the organization’s work with small farmers. These farmers usually cultivate no more than approximately one acre of land and therefore are usually the most in need. While OAF works in both Kenya and Rwanda, these photographs are from western Kenya’s Webuye district. Why is One Acre Fund featured in a business magazine? Its model differs from that of most non-profit organizations. Instead of handing out improved fertilizers and seeds, farmers are given loans for these things and organize in groups under the supervision of a extension worker to learn how to use them. The groups then bring their harvests together at the end of the season when One Acre Fund acts as a bulk selling agent, thus commanding higher prices for the farmers. In 2009,[…]
Read MoreOur Growing Numbers | Accessible Contraception in East Africa
As unemployment remains high and the region’s resources are rapidly being swallowed up by the booming population, family planning is something that every family should consider here in East Africa. In Amuria, Uganda where I live, 57% of all people are under the age of 17. When one compares that to my home town of Richmond, Virginia, in the US, that number falls to 22%. Uganda’s youthful population of 32 million has nearly doubled in the past twenty years. It has one of the highest growth rates in the world. If the current trends stay on track, the country will be home to more than more than 130 million people by 2050. I’ve recently been working with PSI, Population Services International, in Tanzania and Uganda. PSI works in a number of areas in Global Health, but I’ve been specifically documenting their family planning services here in East Africa. Working in[…]
Read MoreBraving the Swarm: Malaria in Uganda’s Amuria District
Amuria Health Centre has been packed beyond capacity in recent weeks, with more people occupying the floors than hospital beds. As the rains continue to fall, more and more people here contract malaria. During the rainy season, when streams rise and lowland areas become flooded, mosquitoes breed in greater numbers. This health centre’s resources (Amuria has no official hospital) are stretched thin even outside the rainy season. The entire district of over 300,000 shares just one doctor for all its public health centres. He travels around from village to village and is rarely in one place for more than a day. When medicine and supplies are available, the cost is picked up by the government. When they run out, which is all too often, the only option for patients is to pay cash for drips, drugs, and needles from the local pharmacy and bring them to the hospital. “Most of[…]
Read Moregray days, Amuria District
I’ve made remote Amuria District my base this year. However, I may not be able to go back for some time as all the roadways into the main town have been rendered impassable by floods. A month ago we were wondering if the rain was ever going to start. Now it has come full-force, isolating villages, bringing down huts, and flooding farmers’ fields. For the moment, more work from PSI has kept me in Kampala. Below, a motion picture of the dreary view from my concrete house in Amuria town. Nature is never kind in this part of Uganda. Far from the dependable, fertile, rolling hills and mountains of the west, the eastern land of the Teso tribe almost counts on nature’s capriciousness, alternating between flood and famine. “Every year it changes,” says Samuel Opio, a resident of Kapelebyong, a sub-county of Amuria District. “Some years there’s too much sunshine,[…]
Read Morepatience in Dar
The streets of Dar es Salaam are a parking lot on the average day. Now that the World Economic Forum has come to town, they’ve become more like long-term storage. I’m on photo and video assignment with PSI covering events surrounding the WEF but much of my time is spent sitting in traffic. This allows for plenty of opportunities for street photography provided one keeps the camera strap firmly tied around the arm. There’s no shortage of heads of state (or even royalty) in town. On Monday I sat across from a personal hero, Morgan Tsvangirai, in a city cafe.
Read MoreFowl Chic
After combing through all the poultry photographs I had taken in the past month, I thought a special blog entry was in order. I then pondered all the chicken puns I could make but second guessed incorporating most of them here, not wanting to derail any future potential writing assignments. BRAC, with whom I recently spent an entire month in four different countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, is the only NGO on the continent with a poultry vaccination program. As seen here in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Uganda, BRAC trains women from local microfinance groups in animal husbandry, health issues, and vaccinations. Members of the community queue up on vaccination days with their poultry and livestock and are charged a small fee for the service. The program provides jobs for those performing the vaccinations and increased income for the small farmers whose poultry is no longer susceptible to many of the[…]
Read MoreHard Labo(u)r
Recently I photographed for the first time as a still photographer on a film documentary. The dynamic was a bit different working alongside a film crew and not having the subjects to myself. Still, I feel was able to get some compelling images. The documentary is produced and directed by Christy Turlington Burns (below, right), who in recent years has made efforts to bring the issue of maternal health in the developing world into the spotlight. Entitled “No Woman, No Cry,” the film highlights the difficulties of bearing children in four different parts of the world. I was happy to be part of the crew here in Tanzania. Some photos from this shoot also appeared in Marie Claire. I also contributed to another Marie Claire article on UNICEF education programs. You can read that here. Look for the release of “No Woman, No Cry” soon.
Read MoreMicro lending, macro change. On the road with BRAC.
I’m currently photographing on a four country assignment with BRAC, an NGO based out of Bangladesh. While I wish I could go there too, I’ve just finished up a leg in Liberia and am heading to Tanzania tonight. I first became familiar with BRAC after spotting their program signs at almost every junction in Tanzania directing highway travelers to nearby projects. They gained more attention last year after an agricultural grant from the Gates Foundation, another organization for whom I regularly photograph. Above, a mangrove swamp on the Sierra Leone River in Port Loko. BRAC works in the areas of microfinance (small loans to individuals), sustainable agriculture, and community health. They primarily work with women and girls in these areas, as women of all ages are more vulnerable in the developing world, more likely to support their families and, as you can see from a past blog entry, doing most[…]
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