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EZRA MILLSTEIN PHOTOGRAPHY

Mercy Corps - Africa

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  • Kaltuma Sheikh Abdullahi, 30, stares out at a reclaimed reservoir in Anole, a small village about 85 km northeast of Wajir. Mercy Corps helped expand the reservoir so the community could get through the drought that has been punishing the region. Mercy Corps also helped to set up an system to control animal access to the water so to avoid disease and fouling of the water. With a pastoral economy based on herding livestock, Kaltuma and her neighbors feel every twitch of the climate, and lately, the rains have been all wrong. Previously the rains used to come twice a year: once at the beginning of the year and once at the end. Now the rains are less frequent and lighter. Sometimes it will be two years between rains, and although it had rained the night before Mercy Corps visited the village, turning the packed dirt roads to muddy rivers (the first rain since the end of November), it was only one day, and it’s not enough to do much against a four-year drought. To help communities like Kaltuma's 30 adapt to climate change, Mercy Corps has conducted awareness campaigns on how to protect natural resources.
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  • Kegna, 8, carries grass on a steep hillside near Ale. Mercy Corps is working with villagers to protect their land so they have enough grass to feed their cattle and survive the dry season.As drought becomes worse, rangeland like this becomes more precious to keep cattle healthy. Mercy Corps is helping villagers protect their land so they can sell cattle at a profit to survive the worsening dry season.
  • Otitte, 24, cuts grass on a steep hillside near Ale. Mercy Corps is working with villagers to protect their land so they have enough grass to feed their cattle and survive the dry season.As drought becomes worse, rangeland like this becomes more precious to keep cattle healthy. Mercy Corps is helping villagers protect their land so they can sell cattle at a profit to survive the worsening dry season.
  • During the dry season, there is no water in the river and Manase, 40, must dig through sand until she hits water. “The water problem in our village is very serious,” she says.She and her husband grow teff, maize, and sorghum to support their seven children. Her husband leads a savings group that helps support the community when crops fail.
  • Beyene, 42, and his son Kefita, 17, hold a eucalyptus seedling at their nursery deep in the forest outside Konso. They also grow coffee, avocado and mango, and sell them to their local agriculture office. Beyene won a 100,000 birr ($3,500 USD) grant from Mercy Corps to expand his business, which he used to buy more plants, build a water basin, and construct a shed. “Previously, I had only ambition,” he says. “It was a complete surprise to me…I felt like I was born again.”
  • Aselefech, 32, holds a mold used to make cookstoves. Mercy Corps trained her to build clean cookstoves alongside three other mothers and provided support to put her kids through school. In Gidole, Mercy Corps is helping promote girls’ education by supporting women and children through the PEG program. The students receive support to finish their education, and their mothers receive job skills training and small business support.
  • Rahima (24) with her 5 month-old son Robin. Rahima is studying electrical engineering in university thanks in part to support she received from Mercy Corps while in high school. Through the PEG program, Mercy Corps is helping provide school materials for girls in Gidole and income-generating activities for their mothers. Mercy Corps provided school uniforms and supplies for Rahima and helped train her mother to start her own business.Rahima will graduate from Arba Minch University with a degree in electrical engineering—the first girl in her family to graduate school. “First, education is a tool that widens your horizons,” she says. “Second, it is through education that you can do something in the future. Without education, everything is meaningless. But through education you can create your own income. Education is very important, not only for me but for other girls.”
  • Rahima (24) sits outside at her alma mater, Gidole High School. Rahima is studying electrical engineering in university thanks in part to support she received from Mercy Corps while in high school. Through the PEG program, Mercy Corps is helping provide school materials for girls in Gidole and income-generating activities for their mothers. Mercy Corps provided school uniforms and supplies for Rahima and helped train her mother to start her own business.Rahima will graduate from Arba Minch University with a degree in electrical engineering—the first girl in her family to graduate school. “First, education is a tool that widens your horizons,” she says. “Second, it is through education that you can do something in the future. Without education, everything is meaningless. But through education you can create your own income. Education is very important, not only for me but for other girls.”
  • Students at Gidole High School. Through the PEG program, Mercy Corps is helping provide school materials for girls in Gidole and income-generating activities for their mothers.
  • March 2019, Gidole, Ethiopia. The hillside town of Gidole. Through the PEG program, Mercy Corps is helping provide school materials for girls in Gidole and income-generating activities for their mothers.
  • Fatuma, 18, holds her 5 month-old nephew Robin. Fatuma's sister Rahima is studying electrical engineering in university thanks in part to support she received from Mercy Corps while in high school. Through the PEG program, Mercy Corps is helping provide school materials for girls in Gidole and income-generating activities for their mothers. Mercy Corps provided school uniforms and supplies for Rahima and helped train her mother to start her own business.Rahima will graduate from Arba Minch University with a degree in electrical engineering—the first girl in her family to graduate school. “First, education is a tool that widens your horizons,” she says. “Second, it is through education that you can do something in the future. Without education, everything is meaningless. But through education you can create your own income. Education is very important, not only for me but for other girls.”
  • Maryan, 28, is a single mother of three small children who owns her own sewing business in Hartesheik, Ethiopia. With little education or experience, she sought a way to provide for her children after divorcing her husband. A three-week skills training from Mercy Corps gave her the experience she needed to open her own business, which now provides for her family.Prolonged dry seasons due to climate change have affected Maryan’s business. She has no savings during the dry season due to fewer customers and must make up for it during the rainy times of the year.
  • Khadra, 42, is chairwoman of a savings group supported by Mercy Corps in Hartasheik, Ethiopia. In the beginning, women in this group were saving about $1 per month. Now the group has grown to 80 people and has saved nearly $7,000, which they use to launch small businesses.Khadra did not receive an education when she was younger and leads this group without being able to read or write. Her children, who are all in school, thanks to her success, help her.
  • Samatan, 10, holds a goat in front of his family's house. His mother Safiya, 45, is a community leader in Hartasheik, Ethiopia. Mercy Corps trained her and several others in her community to help change dangerous traditional behaviors about women’s health and natural resource management. Now the community is connected to health services and protecting the vital land that provides for them.“Women should take leadership roles, and I feel comfortable doing it,” she says. “It’s obvious that women are taking the lead in Ethiopia. The leadership is there and women are taking hold of it.”
  • Farhan, 12, holds a goat in front of his family's house. His mother Safiya, 45, is a community leader in Hartasheik, Ethiopia. Mercy Corps trained her and several others in her community to help change dangerous traditional behaviors about women’s health and natural resource management. Now the community is connected to health services and protecting the vital land that provides for them.“Women should take leadership roles, and I feel comfortable doing it,” she says. “It’s obvious that women are taking the lead in Ethiopia. The leadership is there and women are taking hold of it.”
  • Farhan, 12, holds a goat in front of his family's house. His mother Safiya, 45, is a community leader in Hartasheik, Ethiopia. Mercy Corps trained her and several others in her community to help change dangerous traditional behaviors about women’s health and natural resource management. Now the community is connected to health services and protecting the vital land that provides for them.“Women should take leadership roles, and I feel comfortable doing it,” she says. “It’s obvious that women are taking the lead in Ethiopia. The leadership is there and women are taking hold of it.”
  • Ali, 50, is a livestock trader. Through the PRIME project, Mercy Corps opened a slaughterhouse in nearby Jijiga that buys animals from him. Since he no longer has to export them to Addis Ababa on the other side of the country, his livelihood has improved significantly.As climate change gets worse, Ali says, local pastoralists are bracing for longer droughts. “People in this area predict rain through their experience and using the stars,” he says. “They know how to forecast it very well. They see the stars and the signs in the wind and use different indicators to predict the coming rain season. This year they are very afraid.”
  • Women wait in line for food at a distribution point called Skyline, on a ridge surrounded by mudslides.
  • Children wait in line for clothing at a distribution point called Skyline, on a ridge surrounded by mudslides.
  • People wait in line for food at a distribution point called Skyline, on a ridge surrounded by mudslides.
  • Utility workers walk across the remains of a bridge over the Nyahodi river, which burst its banks and washed away an entire market full of stalls, vendors and customers. It is estimated that 14 bridges around Chimanimani were destroyed, paralyzing transportation and making aid delivery slow and treacherous.
  • Tamary Zunga, 52, searches for personal belongings amidst the wreckage of her home. Luckily nobody was home when a mudslide destroyed the house, and all of the crops surrounding it. Tamary says that nobody in the community can remember seeing a storm like this since 1942.
  • A man digs in a pile of debris, hoping as he has for a week that he will be able to find one of his missing relatives. There are differing accounts of how many lives have been lost there, but it is clearly more than 40, and many people are unaccounted for.
  • A box of muddy shoes that Anthony Machingauta, 52, recovered from his home.
  • Anthony Machingauta, 52, is a schoolteacher. His son Leonard, 15, sits on his lap in the middle of their home. On March 16th, rains from Cyclone Idai unleashed mudslides from the hills surrounding Ngangu, which crushed the front wall of their house and exited out a side wall, leaving 4 feet of mud and unmovable boulders throughout their home. Anthony and his three sons all survived, but he is concerned about how he will be able to afford to feed them and pay their school fees.
  • A damaged bridge on the road to Ngangu. This is the first cyclone in more than a decade to strike Zimbabwe. Strong winds and heavy rains particularly in Chimanimani and Chipinge districts have resulted in flash floods and destruction of infrastructure including houses, bridges, schools and utility lines.
  • Mercy Corps WASH Specialist Vimbayi Mazanhi (right) peers over the edge of a damaged bridge over the Nyahodi river, which burst its banks and washed away an entire market full of stalls, vendors and customers. It is estimated that 14 bridges around Chimanimani were destroyed, paralyzing transportation and making aid delivery slow and treacherous.
  • A boy walks across the remains of a road next to the Nyahodi river, which burst its banks and washed away an entire market full of stalls, vendors and customers. It is estimated that 14 bridges around Chimanimani were destroyed, paralyzing transportation and making aid delivery slow and treacherous.
  • Halima Issoufou, 26, shares a meal of millet porridge with her daughgter. Halima lives with her husband and three children in a rudimentary mud hut in a rural village outside Niger’s capital city, Niamey. Families here rely heavily on agriculture and nearly everyone lives hand-to-mouth. Halima’s family is no exception, and her daily life is not unlike every other woman’s in her village: from sunrise to sunset she works to care for the household, spending most of her time laboring over the day’s next meal. Every day she cleans the home and dishes, collects water and firewood, and pounds millet to make the family’s porridge, an arduous, lengthy process which she finishes just in time to start again. But all this work isn’t enough, and the family often goes without eating — poverty is rife and they are not able to grow enough food to last them the year. “In this area, people’s lives are based on agriculture, which does not answer their needs because of the rain,” Halima explains. “People constantly face drought, and that makes people suffer a lot.”Between 2014 and 2016, Mercy Corps’ ECOUT program responded, providing them with millet seeds; cash-for-work to restore farmland; goats; and training on agriculture, nutrition and hygiene. While conditions remain harsh and finding enough food is still a daily struggle, the family is still feeling some of the benefits from that program, particularly the hygiene and sanitation training, through which Halima learned to wash her dishes before cooking, and exclusively breastfeed her children for the first six months of life.
  • Halima Issoufou, 26, collects water for her family. Halima lives with her husband and three children in a rudimentary mud hut in a rural village outside Niger’s capital city, Niamey. Families here rely heavily on agriculture and nearly everyone lives hand-to-mouth. Halima’s family is no exception, and her daily life is not unlike every other woman’s in her village: from sunrise to sunset she works to care for the household, spending most of her time laboring over the day’s next meal. Every day she cleans the home and dishes, collects water and firewood, and pounds millet to make the family’s porridge, an arduous, lengthy process which she finishes just in time to start again. But all this work isn’t enough, and the family often goes without eating — poverty is rife and they are not able to grow enough food to last them the year. “In this area, people’s lives are based on agriculture, which does not answer their needs because of the rain,” Halima explains. “People constantly face drought, and that makes people suffer a lot.”Between 2014 and 2016, Mercy Corps’ ECOUT program responded, providing them with millet seeds; cash-for-work to restore farmland; goats; and training on agriculture, nutrition and hygiene. While conditions remain harsh and finding enough food is still a daily struggle, the family is still feeling some of the benefits from that program, particularly the hygiene and sanitation training, through which Halima learned to wash her dishes before cooking, and exclusively breastfeed her children for the first six months of life.
  • Halima Issoufou, 26, feeds millet flour gruel to her son Abidoulhaya, 3, outside their rudimentary mud hut in a rural village outside Niger’s capital city, Niamey. Families here rely heavily on agriculture and nearly everyone lives hand-to-mouth. Halima’s family is no exception, and her daily life is not unlike every other woman’s in her village: from sunrise to sunset she works to care for the household, spending most of her time laboring over the day’s next meal. Every day she cleans the home and dishes, collects water and firewood, and pounds millet to make the family’s porridge, an arduous, lengthy process which she finishes just in time to start again. But all this work isn’t enough, and the family often goes without eating — poverty is rife and they are not able to grow enough food to last them the year. “In this area, people’s lives are based on agriculture, which does not answer their needs because of the rain,” Halima explains. “People constantly face drought, and that makes people suffer a lot.”Between 2014 and 2016, Mercy Corps’ ECOUT program responded, providing them with millet seeds; cash-for-work to restore farmland; goats; and training on agriculture, nutrition and hygiene. While conditions remain harsh and finding enough food is still a daily struggle, the family is still feeling some of the benefits from that program, particularly the hygiene and sanitation training, through which Halima learned to wash her dishes before cooking, and exclusively breastfeed her children for the first six months of life.
  • Halima Issoufou, 26, pounds millet into flour outside her rudimentary mud hut in a rural village outside Niger’s capital city, Niamey. Families here rely heavily on agriculture and nearly everyone lives hand-to-mouth. Halima’s family is no exception, and her daily life is not unlike every other woman’s in her village: from sunrise to sunset she works to care for the household, spending most of her time laboring over the day’s next meal. Every day she cleans the home and dishes, collects water and firewood, and pounds millet to make the family’s porridge, an arduous, lengthy process which she finishes just in time to start again. But all this work isn’t enough, and the family often goes without eating — poverty is rife and they are not able to grow enough food to last them the year. “In this area, people’s lives are based on agriculture, which does not answer their needs because of the rain,” Halima explains. “People constantly face drought, and that makes people suffer a lot.”Between 2014 and 2016, Mercy Corps’ ECOUT program responded, providing them with millet seeds; cash-for-work to restore farmland; goats; and training on agriculture, nutrition and hygiene. While conditions remain harsh and finding enough food is still a daily struggle, the family is still feeling some of the benefits from that program, particularly the hygiene and sanitation training, through which Halima learned to wash her dishes before cooking, and exclusively breastfeed her children for the first six months of life.
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  • Hadiara, 35, feeds her goats. She and her family live in a small, rural village 90 minutes outside Niamey where families rely heavily on agriculture and nearly everyone lives hand-to-mouth. Food shortages are chronic here, even more so in recent years as the rains have become increasingly less reliable. Like the other women in her community, Hadiara’s days are made of manual labor: cleaning, collecting water and firewood, farming and pounding millet, with the completion of one meal time bleeding into the preparation for the next. “A woman’s life conditions are a question of a lot of struggling to have food and improve our life,” she says. “We work very hard with poor results, and our life is very difficult.”Between 2014 and 2016, Mercy Corps’ ECOUT program was implemented here, providing Hadiara’s family with seeds; cash-for-work to restore farmland; goats; and training on agriculture, nutrition and hygiene. While conditions remain harsh and hunger is still a daily struggle, the family is still seeing some of the benefits from that program: the goat allowed Hadiara to feed her newborn baby when she couldn’t produce breastmilk, and today the animals are healthy — and pregnant, which will provide her with an emergency source of income. “I am taking care of them myself,” Hadiara says of her goats. “They are very precious to me.”
  • Abdoulfataou Ganda, 18, stands next to a well on his farm. “Most of our friends migrate to seek a better life,” Abdoulfataou explains. He has taken over his father’s farm, which earns him enough to be self-reliant and support his family. Like many youth in his community, he is at risk of migrating in search of opportunity, which means their communities are losing talent and skill to other places. But Abdoulfataou participated in Mercy Corps’ financial literacy training, where he learned about budgeting, saving and how to seek microfinance support for business, which helped solidify is believe that a good life is possible at home. “To me, it’s always better to be at your home, that’s where you can naturally be fine,” he says. “Home is home. And I believe that you can make a business and a good living even here, as long as you have something to do.” Driven by poverty, a lack of opportunity, and cultural expectation, many people in Niger migrate to different areas or countries for months or years at a time to earn income and experience life outside their home community. Migration routes have become increasingly dangerous and costly, putting migrants who don’t know their rights at risk of violence or exploitation. However, migration also has the benefit of enabling people to gain skills they would otherwise not, which they can utilize in their home communities if they return and have access to opportunities. Mercy Corps’ AMIPA program works with returning migrants and those at risk of migrating to provide education about the risks, so people can make informed decisions, while also providing financial inclusion and business support for those who have returned or choose to stay, so that they may access livelihoods in their home communities.
  • Justice Tumuzbe, 10, fled with his grandparents Paul and Suzanne, from their home in Morobo County, South Sudan. Paul and Suzanne's children stayed back in South Sudan or were killed in the conflict. “When we got here, there was only forest, you can’t imagine to survive, especially these young kids,{quote} Paul says. They have benefited from Mercy Corps emergency cash support, receiving six months of payments (38,000 Ugandan shillings each m so that they could supplement their food and start their own small business, a stall in the refugee settlement. Paul is the Education Secretary of the Refugee Community Council.
  • Apate Amina, 37, waits in line at a Mercy Corps cash distribution. She comes from Kimba, in the Central Equatoria region of South Sudan, and arrived in Bidi Bidi in October 2016. Apate takes care of 12 children, 7 of her own and 7 that belonged to her sister who was killed by stray bullets during the recent conflict. She received a payment of 84,0000 Ugandan shillings from Mercy Corps in December, and will receive another payment in March 2018. All of the refugees who received the cash distribution are members of Mercy Corps-supported farmers groups. The objective of the cash distributions are to help them delay the sales of their harvests, so they can sell their produce at higher prices. If they can delay long enough, they don't have to eat or sell their seeds before the next planting season.
  • 287,400 South Sudanese refugees are living in Bidi Bidi refugee settlement, which is considered the largest refugee camp in the world. It is situated in the West Nile sub-region of Uganda. More than 2.2 million people have been forced to flee South Sudan and take refuge in neighboring countries including Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda. Uganda is now hosting more than 1 million refugees. At the height of the crisis, 1,800 to 2,000 people were arriving at Uganda's borders each day. 80% of South Sudanese refugees in Uganda are women and children.
  • Bayoa Dominica, 24, and her 7 month-old son Good Lucky Haron stand in a field of white sorghum. Bayou is a member of a Mercy Corps supported farmers group, composed of both host community Ugandans and South Sudanese refugee men and women, who work together for better crop production. South Sudanese refugees are given small plots of land, and Ugandan nationals have larger plots but very few people to work the land. Together they combine their resources and labor. Mercy Corps provided each farmer with a voucher for 20,000 Ugandan shillings, and many of the farmers groups pooled their vouchers together to buy greater quantities of seeds and more products. Mercy Corps also organized a trade fair between the farmers and the agro dealers so that they could spend their vouchers and purchase what they needed. Caroline Mandera is a Ugandan widow with 7 children, and has been part of the group for 3 months. She says {quote}I joined the group because in the group we have savings. I use the money from the group to pay school fees. I also join hands with the farmers to produce some of our products. We pick and then we sell them.{quote} Mercy Corps will also be supporting these farmers groups to establish VSLAs (Village Savings and Loans Associations) so that members will be able to begin to save some of the money they earn through the sale of crops.
  • Christian Modo (3, blue overalls) went with his mother, Doreen Ajio, to a meeting of the Mercy Corps-supported farmers group, in Bidi Bidi Zone 4 village 5. With Mercy Corps' assistance, the farmers have formed a VSLA (Village Savings and Loans Association) so that members will be able to begin to save some of the money they earn through the sale of crops.South Sudanese refugees are given small plots of land, and Ugandan nationals have larger plots but very few people to work the land. Together they combine their resources and labor. Mercy Corps provided each farmer with a voucher for 20,000 Ugandan shillings, and many of the farmers groups pooled their vouchers together to buy greater quantities of seeds and more products. Mercy Corps also organized a trade fair between the farmers and the agro dealers so that they could spend their vouchers and purchase what they needed.
  • Christian Modo (3, blue overalls) went with his mother, Doreen Ajio, to a meeting of the Mercy Corps-supported farmers group, in Bidi Bidi Zone 4 village 5. With Mercy Corps' assistance, the farmers have formed a VSLA (Village Savings and Loans Association) so that members will be able to begin to save some of the money they earn through the sale of crops.South Sudanese refugees are given small plots of land, and Ugandan nationals have larger plots but very few people to work the land. Together they combine their resources and labor. Mercy Corps provided each farmer with a voucher for 20,000 Ugandan shillings, and many of the farmers groups pooled their vouchers together to buy greater quantities of seeds and more products. Mercy Corps also organized a trade fair between the farmers and the agro dealers so that they could spend their vouchers and purchase what they needed.
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