WOMEN IN THE HORN OF AFRICA: KENYA'S ARID LANDS...MARSABIT

CAPTION: "Therapeutic Feeding Center 1"

In villages like Marsabit, located in the southeastern edges of the Chalbi Desert, small "clinics" provide basic health and medical care to the the Rendille, Samburu,Turkana and Gabra nomadic tribes. As pastoralists, all of them have thrived in Kenya's northern deserts known as "the arid lands" for generations, and are trying to survive the harsh conditions of lost crops and livestock as a result of the on going drought. 

In this image, a young child suffering from severe malnutrition waits her turn yet grows anxious with fitful cries...quietly calmed under the ever watchful presence of her mother...while a portion of "plumpy nut," a vitamin rich peanut butter like foodstuff is prepared - vital in bringing the child back from the edges of starvation.

I can't say that seeing hardship, especially when it affects young children and babies, hasn't left scars on my heart because it has and would anyone with a beating heart in their chest. When some would safely and naturally keep their distance, you instinctively walk closer while slowly measuring the dynamics of the moment. In this instance, a glance with the mother for approval...while you kneel and slowly invade their personal space for just one moment, to document the issues in play so far from sight. You try not to be overwhelmed by her piercing cries, the smell of sickness and when you break from your composition...the seeing...the sight of such a frail little child in such distress - proves hard on everyone.

As a mature photographer, like many of my contemporaries, the way I see is instinctual. I don't need to concern myself with the technical aspects of an image nor it's aesthetics - well beyond this now. However it's the human skills I need, to help me see what's happening in front of me...to recognize the possibilities, to sense the evolving moments that may present an image of consequence, to position yourself, to know when to wait and when to push - this proves to be exhausting. This particular image, it's rough set of tones originally shot in colour, suspends the moment and feels "right" in black and white. 

More importantly than this one image is that this child, via a long, slow process of therapeutic feeding and constant care by her mother, was on her way back to normal weight and improved health.

*This image was produced under a commission by FH, to help support, to help raise awareness, to the issues caused by the ongoing drought in the arid lands of northern Kenya. 

*Food for the Hungry (FH) has been working the back roads of Kenya since the early 70's and they continue without fanfare, the daily tasks of caring for their community.

"I am a strong woman and I fear...nothing" - Loiyangalani-Kenya

Caption: She doesn't own a computer nor does she stay up late watching late night television - doesn't own a radio, expensive shoes or 
flowers in her hair but she's proud of her heritage, honored amongst friends and is respected in her village as an elder.  She has never felt silk 
on her back yet she understands the sun, the moon and the stars, the face of storms that rage across the desert and has the courage, to face 
another day of a six year drought in finding enough food for her children to eat, in having to slake her thirst with dirty water - silently enduring 
the pain of walking for miles each day at dawn on an empty stomach to gather firewood so that her family might just make it through another day.

This image is part of a series of photographs on women, created in the northern desert region of Kenya to help illustrate the need in the community 
where many are suffering, under at times impossible conditions, due to the ongoing drought which still plagues East Africa. While I've created 
images throughout East Africa for nearly two decades, this particular project had at it's core, a requirement to present these women, photographed 
from the Eastern border with Somalia to the Western edges of Sudan, with dignity, to retain their sense of pride so evident, regardless of 
conditions that most of us would find unsurmountable. 

While there's no shortage of tours to parts unknown, nor cameras at the ready with the fascination to record a myriad of moments, I'm reminded 
that much more important than the act of photography, irrespective of it's purpose, are the relationships created with those within the composition.
lt's important that my images are utilized to help "lift the veil," to help us understand and to "see" just a little more clearly, that there are equally 
important people in equally important cultures who really are...more like us...than they are different.

A USAID professional mentioned to me once that..."one on the most important aspects of playing a role in the developing world community is 
to..."do no harm" and I believe this is important for photographers at all levels, especially when working in the developing world...

when in their midst to...

do no harm...

RR

"Winter Landscape" - Ethiopian Highlands

CAPTION:  Food security problems are common in the barren, windswept hills of Gondar, located due north of Lake Tana, 
source of the Blue Nile, in the Northern highlands of Ethiopia. The image of this little girl was created in what can be, 
depending on the rains, a hot zone of malnutrition for Ethiopia. Typically you would think famine or food security issues 
only play out in the deserts to the south yet at times, this region in the cold north with poor soil and a land that is littered 
with rocks, makes it hard for farmers to properly plant food for their families. Children work just as hard alongside their 
parents, gathering grasses, watching over sheep or collecting and stacking piles of cow dung which is used for fuel with a 
small hand full of Kolo, corn..to sustain them.

A farmer I visited at the time was rushing to get a second planting and harvest in before winter set in.  His large oxen were 
whipped and whistled in between the rock outcrops, which made up most of his arable land, with his wife-her baby strapped 
on her back bent over, rooting through the packed earth searching for her reward of the smallest of potatoes. The whole family 
joined in the twilight harvest with a sense of urgency as dense storm clouds gathered overhead as a perfect match to the human 
drama playing out before me.  The potatoes in the bucket were no larger than golf balls and when asked what 
he'll do if his planting fails-he said without hesitation "we'll eat the leaves from the trees"...

"Nelvy" - Poquera Bolivia

CAPTION: I came across Nelvy while on assignment in Bolivia for FH.  She lived a humble life as the daughter of hard working campesinos 
in one of the Campo's very poor farming communities that dot the Bolivian landscape.  During our visit, while standing in the doorway, 
I noticed in the far corner of the room the shape of a small child laying down - behind a set of makeshift curtains. 

I was told that her name was "Nelvy" and with that they summoned a quiet, little waif of a girl, who came and stood quietly in front of me 
with eyes like pieces of coal, her fathers arms wrapped protectively around her tiny shoulders and when I asked about her I didn't expect 
to be told that she didn't have long to live, maybe a year, maybe less...due to a hole in her heart. I was speechless. I learned that while 
there was a doctor willing to perform the surgery they had no money for the nearly $4500 needed for post operative care which for a humble 
farmer - might as well have been a million dollars.  With this thought, I had a wave of emotion flood over me, thinking...there was no way 
on earth I was going to let this little girl die for lack of money.

So I created this image of Nelvy and her father and on my return to Arizona I met by sheer coincidence, a woman named "Carol" who is 
as loving a person that you could ever meet, a horsewoman who took particular interest in where I'd been, telling me that she'd been 
"wanting to help in some way but didn't know how". Well, at the beginning of a very long story, I told Carol that I needed help with 
$5,000 to help save a little girls life or simply, she would die. I left the horse barn that night, where I found Carol, and thought little 

more about our meeting until a week later when a check arrived in the mail for $5,000 with Nelvy's name on it for her open heart 
surgery. Years later, the memory of what Carol's generosity meant to Nelvy, to her family, still resonates with me, knowing the names 
of children who came after Nelvy, from East Africa to The Philippines, who were vulnerable and simply needed an advocate or two.

With the help of so many people, including Food for the Hungry's staff in Bolivia, Nelvy had a successful operation and has been running 
around rural Bolivia for quite a few years now, enjoying a full life with her family and I believe she has a child of her own now. But she must 
have a sense of peace, knowing that she has a strong heart to help her live out her dreams. Nelvy's story, is a truly special story, one that 
has provided the motivation behind other heart operations around the globe and the creation of the HEART fund whereby children in rural 
communities of the developing world, who are critically ill, may find help. 

A few poignant images, a woman in a barn, a bit of money and a beating heart in all of us made the difference. When asked to help 
we simply stepped up and said "yes" when we could easily have said no..we shared a vision for something good for a change and along 
the way, we managed to play a small part, in helping to give Nelvy back her life.

"Desert Maiden in White" - The Chalbi Desert Kenya

CAPTION: While waiting for a sand storm to pass, I stumbled into this young Muslim woman who seemed like an apparition, blurred, running 
between the buildings and I asked her through my interpreter if she would stop for a moment. Her sense of pride in her village, her tribe and 
in herself was so poignant - reminding me that at times while trying to do good in the developing world community part - not to forget... 
just who the visitor is.