https://ezramillstein.com/ weekly 1.0 https://ezramillstein.com/clients/exhibitions/awards monthly 0.8 https://ezramillstein.com/about monthly 0.8 https://storage.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/4R3A7425_1.jpg https://ezramillstein.com/contact monthly 0.8 https://ezramillstein.com/travels-in-india monthly 0.8 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind04310_2.jpg Madurai, India 2004 First Place People Category Smithsonian Magazine 4th Annual Photo Contest Washington, DC March, 2007 3rd Place 10th National Juried Art Exhibition Baker Arts Center Liberal, Kansas January, 2007 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind04084.jpg Pondicherry, India 2004 Honorable Mention “Colors of Life” 2006 International Photo Contest Richmond, Virginia February, 2007 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind03356.jpg Mumbai, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind03367.jpg Mumbai, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind04091.jpg Pondicherry, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind04225b.jpg Varanasi, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind04286.jpg Varanasi, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind03119b.jpg Diu, India 2004 Selection 2006 International Exhibition of Fine Art Photography Juried Exhibition The Center for Fine Art Photography Fort Collins, CO https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind03345.jpg Mumbai, India 2003 Selection REMIX: East-West Currents in Contemporary Art Juried Exhibition Arlington Arts Center 2006 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind04145.jpg Sikkim, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind03252.jpg Manali, India 2003 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind04153.jpg Sikkim, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind03314.jpg Palolem, India 2003 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind03318.jpg Palolem, India 2003 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind03312.jpg Palolem, India 2003 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind04242.jpg Varanasi, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind04237b.jpg Varanasi, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind03066.jpg Jodhpur, India 2003 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind03045.jpg Udaipur, India 2003 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind03040b.jpg Udaipur, India 2003 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind03223.jpg Munnar, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind04012b.jpg Thiruvananthapuram, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind04122.jpg Nagercoil, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind04023.jpg Kolkata, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind04027.jpg Kolkata, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind04078.jpg Kolkata, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind04006.jpg Mumbai, India 2003 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind04108.jpg Vijayawada, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind04357.jpg Madurai, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind04049.jpg Kolkata, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind03213.jpg Kerala, India 2004 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind03120.jpg Cochin, India 2003 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind03169.jpg Cochin, India 2003 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ind03185.jpg Cochin, India 2003 https://ezramillstein.com/yemen-conflict monthly 0.8 https://storage.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/smgs4yxw_hgvj19rn_i73v6n_yemen-201809-emillstein-0189.jpg Lahj, Yemen SEPTEMBER 2018 Hasan supports 14 family members, including his three children. His father and brother died in recent airstrikes. Many of his neighbors left the village at different times, fleeing the violence. He and his family chose to stay. They found it hard to get food, but received cash from Mercy Corps, which he used for medicine for his son, and food for the family. https://storage.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/smgs4yxw_hgvj19rn_lw9p3e_yemen-201809-emillstein-2121.jpg Al Thurba, Yemen SEPTEMBER 2018 One year-old Anwar gets treatment at a mobile malnutrition clinic. He has been sick and malnourished, taking a turn for the worse when his family was forced to flee their home due to conflict. Families like his find relative safety in more rural areas, but these places can be difficult to access and pose challenges to getting resources like food and medical care. “During that trip, he was having diarrhea and vomiting,” explains his mother Sahar. “He was in a difficult situation. The trip took us three days, and there is no place on the road to take him to a hospital, so we just had to keep our focus on getting him here.” Mobile malnutrition screening clinics are one of several ways Mercy Corps is solving the challenges posed by the mountainous terrain of Yemen. https://storage.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/smgs4yxw_hgvj19rn_13oatj_yemen-201809-emillstein-1249.jpg Lahj, Yemen SEPTEMBER 2018 Samira was widowed more than two decades ago, and has been working singelhandedly to support her family. Mercy Corps helped her by providing some goats, which she breeds and sells. https://storage.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/smgs4yxw_hgvj19rn_89tlv6_yemen-201809-emillstein-1015.jpg Lahj, Yemen SEPTEMBER 2018 Ali, 9, peeks through the doorway of his family's home. His father Wassim used to work as a day laborer, trying to find work wherever he could to support his four children, but jobs are scarce in war-torn Yemen. He would travel far and still not be guaranteed to find enough work to support his family’s basic needs. Wassim was hired by a Mercy Corps cash-for-work project, and helped build an irrigation channel. He used the money to buy a cow and some sheep, and opened a vegetable stand, so he could begin to earn a regular income. https://storage.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/smgs4yxw_hgvj19rn_p5lo21_yemen-201809-emillstein-1972.jpg Al Thurba, Yemen SEPTEMBER 2018 Fatima and her family fled the fighting in Hodeida, and took refuge in an abandonded school with more than 60 other families. https://storage.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/smgs4yxw_hgvj19rn_pdkdtz_yemen-201809-emillstein-2037.jpg Al Thurba, Yemen SEPTEMBER, 2018 Entikhab has four children and is pregnant with her fifth. She and her family fled fighting in the port city of Hodeida, taking refuge in an abandoned school with more than 60 other families. “One day we woke up to the sound of rockets, Entikhab says. “We were really afraid. We didn’t feel safe. We sold everything we had, everything so we could leave.” They now live in a stairwell and the kids sleep with only a couple of blankets between them and the hard-tiled floor, kept up at night by rats and stinging insects. The family received emergency cash from Mercy Corps, which enabled Entikhab to purchase cooking fuel to safely prepare meals for her children. But their needs are still immense. “You can clearly see how difficult our situation is,” Entikhab says. “Our life is so hard. I am trying to go out and find work. Sometimes I come home with no money, and we go to sleep without food.” https://storage.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/smgs4yxw_hgvj19rn_hit8dd_yemen-201809-emillstein-1968.jpg Al Thurba, Yemen SEPTEMBER, 2018 Safiha and other members of a marginalized community in Yemen fled violence on Hodieda and sought shelter in an abandoned school. Around 60 families live here, but with no running water, no cooking facilities or bathrooms, and broken windows and doors, the building provides only the most rudimentary shelter. The space is sweltering in summer and bone-chillingly cold in winter, and infested with rats and insects. Safiha received a cash distribution from Mercy Corps to help her meet her basic needs. https://storage.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/smgs4yxw_hgvj19rn_6qw00n_yemen-201809-emillstein-1902_1.jpg Al Thurba, Yemen SEPTEMBER 2018 This woman and her 3 week-old baby fled violence in Hodeida, and sought shelter in an abandoned school. Around 60 families live here, but with no running water, no cooking facilities or bathrooms, and broken windows and doors, the building provides only the most rudimentary shelter. The space is sweltering in summer and bone-chillingly cold in winter, and infested with rats and insects. She received a cash distribution from Mercy Corps to help her meet her basic needs. https://storage.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/smgs4yxw_hgvj19rn_tcpwjf_yemen-201809-emillstein-1868.jpg Al Thurba, Yemen SEPTEMBER 2018 Fatima is a mother of six. She and her children fled escalating violence in Hodeida, and found shelter with other members from their marginalized community in an abandoned school. Her husband is injured and cannot seek work so, without an income, they struggle to meet their basic needs. The family received emergency cash from Mercy Corps which they used to purchase food and clothing for the children. https://storage.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/smgs4yxw_hgvj19rn_mph7lr_yemen-201809-emillstein-3399-copy.jpg Al Mahweet, Yemen SEPTEMBER 2018 Abdullah and his 7-year-old daughter Nehan in a cholera isolation unit, where Nehan has just begun receiving treatment. Mercy Corps is providing cholera clinics with beds, IV fluids and water to help them meet the increasing needs of patients like her. https://storage.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/smgs4yxw_hgvj19rn_ih2jcb_yemen-201809-emillstein-3669_1.jpg Al Mahweet, Yemen SEPTEMBER 2018 When Khalid’s younger son, Mohammed, fell severely ill from cholera, he carried him for two hours on his back through the mountains to receive treatment. His 10-year-old son Ali is also sick. Mercy Corps is providing cholera clinics in Yemen with beds, IV fluids and water to help them meet the increasing needs of patients like Mohammed. “They are providing us with everything, as I have nothing,” Khalid says of the clinic. “Whenever one of my family members get sick, I just bring them here.” https://storage.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/smgs4yxw_hgvj19rn_p0ykoa_yemen-201809-emillstein-5212_1.jpg Al Mahweet, Yemen SEPTEMBER 2018 Rassam, 7, with a jerrycan full of water. His mother Nadia has one wish: for the war in Yemen to stop. Because of the current conflict, her kids can’t attend school; they don’t have enough food; they can’t afford to go to the doctor; and they live in constant fear. “With the current war, there is no future for us or for our kids,” she says. Mercy Corps built a water point in their community, providing them with a safe, affordable source of clean water. Now that they don’t have to rely on expensive water trucking, they can focus their income on other things they need to survive. https://storage.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/smgs4yxw_hgvj19rn_uhoxih_yemen-201809-emillstein-6185.jpg Al Mahweet, Yemen SEPTEMBER 2018 Malak stands in the hallways of her family's home. Her father Najib is a skilled laborer, a mason and plasterer, but the crisis in Yemen has made it difficult for him to support his family. Mercy Corps hired him as part of a cash-for-work program to build a retaining wall. When people have a marketable skill, it improves their chances and gives them more ways to survive. https://storage.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/smgs4yxw_hgvj19rn_imezic_yemen-201809-emillstein-6018.jpg Al Mahweet, Yemen SEPTEMBER 2018 https://storage.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/smgs4yxw_hgvj19rn_9kbrxj_yemen-201809-emillstein-7132.jpg Al Mahweet, Yemen SEPTEMBER 2018 The rugged mountains of northern Yemen. https://ezramillstein.com/syria-crisis monthly 0.8 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/syria-201707-emillstein-0256.jpg Syria JULY 2017 Marwa holds her 3 month-old daughter Farah, inside the tent where they are staying temporarily. She and her husband, Ali, fled the violence in their hometown and are now living in a displacement camp. Ali used to work selling vegetables out of his car, but there is no work in the camp. Mercy Corps is helping to meet the needs of families across Syria who are fleeing the violent conflict, providing them with basic essentials. This has included providing new arrival kits in this informal settlement. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/syria-201707-emillstein-0088.jpg Syria JULY 2017 Marwa holds her 3 month-old daughter Farah, inside the tent where they are staying temporarily. She and her husband, Ali, fled the violence in their hometown and are now living in a displacement camp. Ali used to work selling vegetables out of his car, but there is no work in the camp. Mercy Corps is helping to meet the needs of families across Syria who are fleeing the violent conflict, providing them with basic essentials. This has included providing new arrival kits in this informal settlement. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/syria-201707-emillstein-0177.jpg Syria JULY 2017 Ali holds his 3 month-old daughter Farah, inside the tent where they are staying temporarily. She and her husband, Ali, fled the violence in their hometown and are now living in a displacement camp. Ali used to work selling vegetables out of his car, but there is no work in the camp. Mercy Corps is helping to meet the needs of families across Syria who are fleeing the violent conflict, providing them with basic essentials. This has included providing new arrival kits in this informal settlement. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/syria-201707-emillstein-0408.jpg Syria JULY 2017 Mercy Corps is helping to meet the needs of families across Syria who are fleeing the violent conflict, providing them with basic essentials. This has included providing new arrival kits in this informal settlement. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/syria-201707-emillstein-0953.jpg Syria JULY 2017 Abu Goubran with his granddaughter Wia, 1, and a pile of freshly harvested eggplant, tomatoes and watermelon. He does not own land, but has significant agricultural expertise thanks to a lifetime spent working in farming. Mercy Corps connected him to a landowner who was interested in benefiting from that expertise, and provided some resources to improve the farm, including building a greenhouse. Together, they have seen yields increase dramatically. The greenhouse generates 10 times the yield of the same area of land not under a greenhouse, Abu Goubran says. The use of greenhouses is not common in this area, so they were the first to be able to grow out of season vegetables. They use organic methods, with an apiary on site to pollinate the fields. They also open the farm to do training sessions for local farmers on innovative farming techniques. Between Abu Goubran, the landowner, the various laborers who work the fields and another partner who helps with purchasing supplies the farm directly supports four families. The village is home to another 400 families who benefit indirectly from reduced prices and a broader range of foods. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/syria-201707-emillstein-0679.jpg Syria JULY 2017 Abu Goubran's son Safouan, 12, harvests watermelon. Abu Goubran does not own land, but has significant agricultural expertise thanks to a lifetime spent working in farming. Mercy Corps connected him to a landowner who was interested in benefiting from that expertise, and provided some resources to improve the farm, including building a greenhouse. Together, they have seen yields increase dramatically. The greenhouse generates 10 times the yield of the same area of land not under a greenhouse, Abu Goubran says. The use of greenhouses is not common in this area, so they were the first to be able to grow out of season vegetables. They use organic methods, with an apiary on site to pollinate the fields. They also open the farm to do training sessions for local farmers on innovative farming techniques. Between Abu Goubran, the landowner, the various laborers who work the fields and another partner who helps with purchasing supplies the farm directly supports four families. The village is home to another 400 families who benefit indirectly from reduced prices and a broader range of foods. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/jordan-201708-emillstein-2828_1.jpg Azraq, Jordan AUGUST 2017 A boy draws water from a well at Azraq refugee camp. The camp first opened in April 2014. It houses over 20,000 refugees from the conflict in Syria. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/jordan-201807-emillstein-2578.jpg Zaatari, Jordan JULY 2018 Children play on the outskirts of Zaatari refugee camp. Mercy Corps operates a safe space inside Zaatari, where Syrian refugees learn about healthy parenting strategies and make traditional Syrian crafts that help them stay connected to their home. The space, which features a playground, garden, soccer field, and classrooms, gives adults and children a safe place to stay in the middle of the dusty camp. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/jordan-201807-emillstein-2218.jpg Zaatari, Jordan JULY 2018 Badara, 11, holds her little brother Ali, 2, at a youth center run by Mercy Corps. Here, boys and girls participate in activities specifically designed to help them cope with difficult experiences, rebuild confidence and trust in those around them, and develop skills to keep them on the path to a better future. At the centers, art sessions allow kids to work through painful experiences. Sports and exercise help them burn energy and learn about teamwork, determination and values. Classes teach them life skills, including communication, goal setting and time management, and hard skills such as English and computers. Community improvement projects, like mural painting, give them a voice. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/jordan-201807-emillstein-3337.jpg Mafraq, Jordan JULY 2018 Ahmad, 10, a Syrian refugee, plays on a wall next to his neighbor's family's goat pen. The neighbors are Maha, 34, and Mohammad, 39, and they are also Syrian refugees. Mohammad has worked on and off in Jordan for several years, but the war in Syria has made it his permanent home—his house in Syria has been burned down. When his wife followed as war closed in, she was placed in Jordan’s Azraq camp but fled after a few weeks. Together, they struggle to provide for their five children, who are out of school. Maha and Mohammad were separated by the war for more than two years. When they reunited, their daughter, Alala, didn’t recognize him. Today they live together in a small tent in Jordanian desert, trying to scrape together work until peace returns. A few of Maha and Mohammad’s kids are old enough to remember when war broke out in their town. “My daughter, when the plane came … she started to cry, because she saw, in front of us, the plane carrying out massacres of innocent people,” Maha says. In Syria, Mohammad and Maha were small farmers raising their kids in peace. But since war forced them from home, now they live as refugees, struggling to cope with what their family has been through. “I swear that when the night comes, and we hear the sound of planes, my body starts to shake out of fear for my sons,” Maha says. Mercy Corps connected the family to mobile banking, which they use to pay bills and save money on their phones. Their dream today is to continue on to Europe where their kids can continue their educations and live in peace. “I’ve suffered,” Mohammad says. “I don’t want them to suffer like me.” https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/jordan-201807-emillstein-3380.jpg Mafraq, Jordan JULY 2018 Maha, 34, holds her 1-year-old daughter Heba. They are Syrian refugees. Maha's husband Mohammad has worked on and off in Jordan for several years, but the war in Syria has made it his permanent home—his house in Syria has been burned down. When his wife followed as war closed in, she was placed in Jordan’s Azraq camp but fled after a few weeks. Together, they struggle to provide for their five children, who are out of school. Maha and Mohammad were separated by the war for more than two years. When they reunited, their daughter, Alala, didn’t recognize him. Today they live together in a small tent in Jordanian desert, trying to scrape together work until peace returns. A few of Maha and Mohammad’s kids are old enough to remember when war broke out in their town. “My daughter, when the plane came … she started to cry, because she saw, in front of us, the plane carrying out massacres of innocent people,” Maha says. In Syria, Mohammad and Maha were small farmers raising their kids in peace. But since war forced them from home, now they live as refugees, struggling to cope with what their family has been through. “I swear that when the night comes, and we hear the sound of planes, my body starts to shake out of fear for my sons,” Maha says. Mercy Corps connected the family to mobile banking, which they use to pay bills and save money on their phones. Their dream today is to continue on to Europe where their kids can continue their educations and live in peace. “I’ve suffered,” Mohammad says. “I don’t want them to suffer like me.” https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/jordan-201807-emillstein-0997.jpg Mafraq, Jordan JULY 2018 Ahmad, 51, holds his granddaughters Zinab, 2, and Bilasan, 6 months. They are Syrian refugees living in an informal tent settlement. They fled Syria in 2012 when a bomb destroyed their home. Since then, they have lived in a tent community with 23 other families, where Ahmad built a schoolhouse that teaches more than 40 Syrian kids. Ahmad was a farmer back in Syria, but when he saw how none of the children in this community could read or write, he decided to be their teacher. The walls of his classroom are covered in posters teaching English, Arabic, science and math, while the ceiling is decorated with recycled materials the children gathered. “I try to put hope for the children here. So I’m proud of what I did,” he says. More than 700,000 Syrian refugee children are out of school. Ahmad built this classroom so that when the time comes for the kids in his community to return to Syria, they’ll be ready to pick up their education again. “I built everything here by myself,” he says. “I started this to teach children here, because if I didn’t, they would take their own direction in their life and do the wrong thing, like drugs or going to the streets. Children in this generation are our future. Because of that, I started this school.” Ahmad’s school teaches children ranging from ages 5 to 13. They meet from 8 a.m. to noon, six days a week. At first there were no chairs, and the students sat on rocks in the sand. The community pulled together to help buy carpet, stools, and school materials. “It’s a benefit for everyone here,” he says. Ahmad uses Khabrona, a digital platform built by Mercy Corps and Cisco to help refugees access critical services through their cell phones. Once he used the app, he was able to get documentation for his son to live legally in the country. “I felt relief,” he says. “I felt like I was legal because I could go back and forth and my child could go back and forth … This program really helped a lot of families.” Ahmad lives about 13 miles from the Syrian border—close enough to hear the sound of airstrikes in the distance. The sound is a reminder of the life he used to have and the struggles he’s endured for his family’s safety. “I used to own a farm, now I’m working for a farmer. I used to make people work for me and respect them, now I’m working for someone who doesn’t respect me,” he says. “It was really hard. We have a lot of depression.” Ahmad has a close relationship with the kids in his school, who call him Teacher or Uncle. When the kids hear the airstrikes, they often come to him to ask him to explain it. “Most of the children actually didn’t live this, so at first they didn’t know,” he says. “They thought it was fireworks. But after they go back to their parents and start to see the news, they come back to me and ask me about it, “We saw the news and people died and everything.” I tried to make the picture better, but you can’t. I tried, but it will stay a black picture because someone died.” https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/jordan-201807-emillstein-1074.jpg Mafraq, Jordan JULY 2018 A girl attends class in a tent in an informal settlement outside Mafraq, where 23 families live. Her teacher, Ahmad, 51, built the schoolhouse that teaches more than 40 Syrian kids. Ahmad was a farmer back in Syria, but when he saw how none of the children in this community could read or write, he decided to be their teacher. The walls of his classroom are covered in posters teaching English, Arabic, science and math, while the ceiling is decorated with recycled materials the children gathered. “I try to put hope for the children here. So I’m proud of what I did,” he says. More than 700,000 Syrian refugee children are out of school. Ahmad built this classroom so that when the time comes for the kids in his community to return to Syria, they’ll be ready to pick up their education again. “I built everything here by myself,” he says. “I started this to teach children here, because if I didn’t, they would take their own direction in their life and do the wrong thing, like drugs or going to the streets. Children in this generation are our future. Because of that, I started this school.” Ahmad’s school teaches children ranging from ages 5 to 13. They meet from 8 a.m. to noon, six days a week. At first there were no chairs, and the students sat on rocks in the sand. The community pulled together to help buy carpet, stools, and school materials. “It’s a benefit for everyone here,” he says. Ahmad uses Khabrona, a digital platform built by Mercy Corps and Cisco to help refugees access critical services through their cell phones. Once he used the app, he was able to get documentation for his son to live legally in the country. “I felt relief,” he says. “I felt like I was legal because I could go back and forth and my child could go back and forth … This program really helped a lot of families.” Ahmad lives about 13 miles from the Syrian border—close enough to hear the sound of airstrikes in the distance. The sound is a reminder of the life he used to have and the struggles he’s endured for his family’s safety. “I used to own a farm, now I’m working for a farmer. I used to make people work for me and respect them, now I’m working for someone who doesn’t respect me,” he says. “It was really hard. We have a lot of depression.” Ahmad has a close relationship with the kids in his school, who call him Teacher or Uncle. When the kids hear the airstrikes, they often come to him to ask him to explain it. “Most of the children actually didn’t live this, so at first they didn’t know,” he says. “They thought it was fireworks. But after they go back to their parents and start to see the news, they come back to me and ask me about it, “We saw the news and people died and everything.” I tried to make the picture better, but you can’t. I tried, but it will stay a black picture because someone died.” https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/lebanon-201808-emillstein-1125.jpg Sidon, Lebanon AUGUST 2018 This avocado farm in southern Lebanon sells seedlings to local farmers. Support from Mercy Corps provided an irrigation system that helped the business plant an additional 24,000 trees and hire new farmers, including Moufideh, a Syrian refugee. More than 150 local farmers buy their trees from this business, which has grown rapidly thanks to Mercy Corps’ support. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/lebanon-201708-emillstein-0622_1.jpg Bekaa Valley, Lebanon AUGUST 2017 Iman (26) sits inside her family's shelter in an informal settlement. They fled Raqqa when ISIS took over, almost five years ago. She was displaced in another region of Syria, and made her way to Lebanon about a year ago. Iman is a single mother who benefitted from a cash-for-work program, in which she rehabilitated a community garden with 20 other Lebanese and Syrian people. They cleared the land, planted trees and installed benches. She used her wages to rent shelter for her family. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/lebanon-201708-emillstein-0250.jpg Bekaa Valley, Lebanon AUGUST 2017 Mercy Corps is running Gender Based Violence sessions to teach both men and women about gender, equality and conflict resolution. Women face a lot of risks in their current situation; violence, beatings and rape are all concerns. Diana (pictured), 18, left Syria with her family when she was 11 or 12. Her mother, Kaffa, hosts the sessions in her home, and even though they have only been in operation for 2 weeks, they have become very popular. Kaffa and her family fled from Syria; it took them 4 days to get to Lebanon. 'We fled from death, we fled from hunger and terror," she said. Her husband cannot work because he has a herniated disc, so Kaffa takes care of him. When they first arrived, they did not have any shelter. Everyone who could work had to start working, including the children (as young as 9) in the fields for about $4 a day so that they could rent some kind of shelter. "I feel safe here - there is no more war, no more killing, no more death. I have secured my family so now I am able to sleep at night." https://ezramillstein.com/recovering-from-boko-haram monthly 0.8 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nigeria-201810-emillstein-3090.jpg Recovering from Boko Haram | ezramillstein.com View Recovering from Boko Haram by ezramillstein.com. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nigeria-201810-emillstein-2390.jpg Recovering from Boko Haram | ezramillstein.com View Recovering from Boko Haram by ezramillstein.com. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nigeria-201810-emillstein-3706.jpg Recovering from Boko Haram | ezramillstein.com View Recovering from Boko Haram by ezramillstein.com. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nigeria-201810-emillstein-6401.jpg Recovering from Boko Haram | ezramillstein.com View Recovering from Boko Haram by ezramillstein.com. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nigeria-201810-emillstein-4885.jpg Recovering from Boko Haram | ezramillstein.com View Recovering from Boko Haram by ezramillstein.com. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nigeria-201810-emillstein-1062_1.jpg Recovering from Boko Haram | ezramillstein.com View Recovering from Boko Haram by ezramillstein.com. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nigeria-201810-emillstein-4075_1.jpg October 2018, Biu, Nigeria. Fatima, 17, in her family's home. She started her own business selling sugar. She was motivated to start after learning about savings and money management in Mercy Corps’ I-SING program, which provides safe spaces, livelihood grants and vocational training to vulnerable youth in Boko Haram affected communities in Nigeria. Now she sells in two locations — her home and her father’s retail shop — and saves the income between a home bank and the Mercy Corps-facilitated savings group (VSLA) where she is a member. When the VSLA pays out next month, she is excited to build her business even more. Even though her family is struggling to meet their needs, Fatima is determined to finish school and be self-sufficient, believing independent women are the key to development. She wants to be a midwife when she is older, so she can help women more. October 2018, Biu, Nigeria. Fatima, 17, in her family's home. She started her own business selling sugar. She was motivated to start after learning about savings and money management in Mercy Corps’ I-SING program, which provides safe spaces, livelihood grants and vocational training to vulnerable youth in Boko Haram affected communities in Nigeria. Now she sells in two locations — her home and her father’s retail shop — and saves the income between a home bank and the Mercy Corps-facilitated savings group (VSLA) where she is a member. When the VSLA pays out next month, she is excited to build her business even more. Even though her family is struggling to meet their needs, Fatima is determined to finish school and be self-sufficient, believing independent women are the key to development. She wants to be a midwife when she is older, so she can help women more. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nigeria-201810-emillstein-1493.jpg Gombe, Nigeria OCTOBER 2018 Suwaiba Yakubu Adam (18, brown hijab) teaches a group of 25 girls from her community who she identified and recruited herself. Using the same curriculum she learned from Mercy Corps, she guides lessons in everything from financial literacy to sexual health, believing sharing of this knowledge can be transformative for them. Suwaiba has been through a great deal in her 18 years: the death of both her parents, harassment by local gangs, attacks by Boko Haram. Yet she perseveres, stoic and determined, crediting her parents for instilling in her a desire to help people. After participating in Mercy Corps’ girls group in her community — part of the I-SING program, which provides life and vocational skills to vulnerable youth in Boko Haram-affected areas — Suwaiba felt so strongly that more girls should have the opportunity that she started leading her own group, independent of the Mercy Corps program. With the Boko Haram crisis behind her, she’s continuing to pursue to her own ambitions too: she wants to complete school and become a pharmacist, because it’s a way to serve her community. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nigeria-201810-emillstein-4796.jpg Biu, Nigeria OCTOBER 2018 Jauny Danyaro Mary cooks vegetables in front of her home. She fled a Boko Haram attack in her village four years ago — the group came in the middle of the night, forcing her and her family to run with whatever they were wearing and little else. Her father was shot and killed in the attack; Mary made it to Biu, but her life has been difficult since. Upon arriving, she took in six orphans whose parents had either been killed or could no longer care for them, worrying they wouldn’t have a future if she didn’t. Mary has four biological children as well (one of whom recently passed away), and has struggled immensely to feed them with what she can grow and cultivate herself on land she pays to rent. Without an income, she says she is also at risk of losing their shelter, which she must pay rent on soon. Mary received emergency food support from Mercy Corps, which fed them for about 10 months, and has since received a livelihood grant as part of the early recovery work implemented as security has improved in Biu. Mary purchased bulk cereals — rice, millet, other grains — to sell from her home in smaller quantities, which she now does one day a week, when she is not at the farm, to earn income. The money helps her purchase food for the children — but the future is still uncertain, and she worries she won’t be able to keep a shelter over their heads. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nigeria-201810-emillstein-6139.jpg Dikwa, Nigeria OCTOBER 2018 In the “garrison” town of Dikwa, where daily life is an excruciating waiting game. Boko Haram is still active in this area in the very northeast corner of Nigeria, and the military can currently only offer safety within the town’s borders. So around 7,000 IDPs have sheltered here, receiving relative security that comes at the cost of their ability to farm and move freely, rendering them almost completely dependent on aid and able to do little more than watch and wait until peace returns enough that they can return home or otherwise rebuild. People’s ability to meet their basic needs is extremely limited, with almost no income opportunities and many risking their lives to travel to the bush to collect firewood just so they can cook food for their families. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nigeria-201810-emillstein-5372.jpg Recovering from Boko Haram | ezramillstein.com View Recovering from Boko Haram by ezramillstein.com. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nigeria-201810-emillstein-6798_1.jpg Recovering from Boko Haram | ezramillstein.com View Recovering from Boko Haram by ezramillstein.com. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nigeria-201810-emillstein-5966_1.jpg Recovering from Boko Haram | ezramillstein.com View Recovering from Boko Haram by ezramillstein.com. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nigeria-201810-emillstein-7887_1.jpg Recovering from Boko Haram | ezramillstein.com View Recovering from Boko Haram by ezramillstein.com. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nigeria-201810-emillstein-7661.jpg Tunga, Nigeria OCTOBER 2018 Moses (striped shirt), a 45 year-old fisherman, and his son Paul, 25, fish on a slow, muddy river near their home. As a lifelong fisherman, Moses depends on the water to provide food and income for his family. But in an agricultural community where nearly everyone relies on natural resources, competition over land and water can cause tension and even conflict. Fisherman like Moses are often at odds with pastoralists, who bring their animals to the water and can cause contamination. Conflict between farmers and herders, largely over competition natural resources like land and water, has been ongoing for decades in Nigeria’s “Middle Belt” region, where Tunga is, but it has recently been exacerbated by population growth and the increasing effects of climate change. Across the region, thousands have been killed and more than 300,000 have reportedly been displaced by violence and reprisal attacks this year. Mercy Corps is doing peacebuilding work in the Middle Belt, helping both sides learn conflict-management skills and providing opportunities for peaceful dialogue. Moses participated in a conflict prevention forum — a facilitated dialogue between differing groups that offers a chance for everyone to voice their concerns — and a conflict management training that taught community members how to peacefully work through disagreements. Since then he has mediated several conflicts in his community and has seen even households begin to live more peacefully. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nigeria-201810-emillstein-7629.jpg Tunga, Nigeria OCTOBER 2018 Moses (striped shirt), a 45 year-old fisherman, and his son Paul, 25, fish on a slow, muddy river near their home. As a lifelong fisherman, Moses depends on the water to provide food and income for his family. But in an agricultural community where nearly everyone relies on natural resources, competition over land and water can cause tension and even conflict. Fisherman like Moses are often at odds with pastoralists, who bring their animals to the water and can cause contamination. Conflict between farmers and herders, largely over competition natural resources like land and water, has been ongoing for decades in Nigeria’s “Middle Belt” region, where Tunga is, but it has recently been exacerbated by population growth and the increasing effects of climate change. Across the region, thousands have been killed and more than 300,000 have reportedly been displaced by violence and reprisal attacks this year. Mercy Corps is doing peacebuilding work in the Middle Belt, helping both sides learn conflict-management skills and providing opportunities for peaceful dialogue. Moses participated in a conflict prevention forum — a facilitated dialogue between differing groups that offers a chance for everyone to voice their concerns — and a conflict management training that taught community members how to peacefully work through disagreements. Since then he has mediated several conflicts in his community and has seen even households begin to live more peacefully. https://ezramillstein.com/children-of-mosul monthly 0.8 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/iraq-201707-emillstein-3565.jpg Qayyarah Jeddah, Iraq JULY 2017 Abdulrahman Saleh sleeps on the floor just inside his family's tent at the Jeddah IDP camp. His family has been displaced for 9 months, since their home was completely destroyed. “We left only with the clothes we were wearing. We were in the desert for three days without anything,” says Yaser's mother, Sana Fathi Abdullah Younes. They are one of 400 families that received NFI kits from Mercy Corps on this day; the kit included 6 blankets, 2 jerrycans, a tarp and a rope. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/iraq-201707-emillstein-3476.jpg Qayyarah Jeddah, Iraq JULY 2017 A boy looks out the window of his family's tent at the Jeddah IDP camp. Families fleeing the violence in Mosul are often unable to bring anything with them. In displacement camps, Mercy Corps is delivering essential supplies to help people survive. New arrival kits include: cooking pot and pan, plates, glasses, silverware, serving spoon, stainless steel kitchen knife, 6 light weight blankets, 1 rope, 1 tarp and 2 jerry cans. To provide one family with these household essentials costs approximately $70 USD / 60 Euro / 54 GBP. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/iraq-201707-emillstein-2463.jpg Mosul, Iraq JULY 2017 Ibrahim, 6, is the youngest of Wasila’s three children. Her husband was a police officer who was killed during the recent conflict. She herself was beaten many times, and her daughter Sarah still suffers from her wounds, and from what she termed a “mental shock.” Her son Ibrahim is shy. She says that Ibrahim says he wants to be a policeman. Wasila said that Ibrahim "keeps it in his heart. He processes these things in his mind.” They received a $400 cash distribution from Mercy Corps, which they will use for food, cooking gas, and to pay the generator supplier for electricity. Cash assistance is the quickest and most efficient way of helping because people can buy what they and their families need most. Since July 2016, Mercy Corps has helped more than 12,000 families impacted by conflict around Mosul. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/iraq-201707-emillstein-1688.jpg Mosul, Iraq JULY 2017 Shahad Moatez Hashem, 5, plays on an improvised swing. She lives with her grandmother, Faiza Abdulrazak Aziz. Faiza and her extended family fled from ISIS. There is nothing left at their house; their car was burned and their home was destroyed. They share a home with five families. She has six children, three boys and three girls, and six grandchildren living in the shared house. The family received a $400 cash distribution from Mercy Corps. Cash assistance is the quickest and most efficient way of helping because people can buy what they and their families need most. Since July 2016, Mercy Corps has helped more than 12,000 families impacted by conflict around Mosul. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/iraq-201707-emillstein-1663.jpg Mosul, Iraq JULY 2017 Mustafa, 9, carries his 6 month-old cousin Rayan. They live with their grandmother, Faiza Abdulrazak Aziz, She and her extended family fled from ISIS. There is nothing left at their house; their car was burned and their home was destroyed. They share a home with five families. She has six children, three boys and three girls, and six grandchildren living in the shared house. The family received a $400 cash distribution from Mercy Corps. Cash assistance is the quickest and most efficient way of helping because people can buy what they and their families need most. Since July 2016, Mercy Corps has helped more than 12,000 families impacted by conflict around Mosul. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/iraq-201707-emillstein-2973.jpg Qayyarah Jeddah, Iraq JULY 2017 Muthana Raeed, 6, and her family went to an NFI distribution at the Jeddah IDP camp. Families fleeing the violence in Mosul are often unable to bring anything with them. In displacement camps, Mercy Corps is delivering essential supplies to help people survive. New arrival kits include: cooking pot and pan, plates, glasses, silverware, serving spoon, stainless steel kitchen knife, 6 light weight blankets, 1 rope, 1 tarp and 2 jerry cans. To provide one family with these household essentials costs approximately $70 USD / 60 Euro / 54 GBP. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/iraq-201707-emillstein-2982.jpg Qayyarah Jeddah, Iraq. JULY 2017 Muthana Raeed (6, bottom) and her sister Mazin (13, top) went to an NFI distribution at the Jeddah IDP camp. Families fleeing the violence in Mosul are often unable to bring anything with them. In displacement camps, Mercy Corps is delivering essential supplies to help people survive. New arrival kits include: cooking pot and pan, plates, glasses, silverware, serving spoon, stainless steel kitchen knife, 6 light weight blankets, 1 rope, 1 tarp and 2 jerry cans. To provide one family with these household essentials costs approximately $70 USD / 60 Euro / 54 GBP. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/iraq-201707-emillstein-3252.jpg Qayyarah Jeddah, Iraq JULY 2017 Freeal Jummah, 15, holds two jerrycans that her family received as part of a Mercy Corps NFI distribution. Hers is one of 400 families that received NFI kits from Mercy Corps on this day; the kit included 6 blankets, 2 jerrycans, a tarp and a rope. Before the crisis, her family farmed for a living. They fled the fighting in Shirqat, south of Mosul, and have been in IDP camps since January. Freeal and her siblings wait in line for water twice a day for up to an hour. Her mother, Hela Salama Jummah, said "This is my country, my birthplace. I would hope to be able to go home.” https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/IMG_9495_1.jpg Khabat, Iraq JULY 2017 Youth, IDPs and refugees attend a music class at a Mercy Corps Youth Center. Boys and girls have the opportunity to attend courses there for a few hours a day from Sunday to Thursday each week. The classes include language, music, media and sports. https://ezramillstein.com/mercy-corps---africa monthly 0.8 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/kenya-201802-emillstein-1117_1.jpg Mercy Corps - Africa | ezramillstein.com View Mercy Corps - Africa by ezramillstein.com. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/kenya-201803-emillstein-1980.jpg Anole, Kenya MARCH 2018 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/4R3A6717_1.jpg Mercy Corps - Africa | ezramillstein.com View Mercy Corps - Africa by ezramillstein.com. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ethiopia-201903-emillstein-3480_1.jpg Ale, Ethiopia MARCH 2019 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ethiopia-201903-emillstein-2283_1.jpg Ale, Ethiopia MARCH 2019 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ethiopia-201903-emillstein-1246_1.jpg Ale, Ethiopia MARCH 2019 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ethiopia-201903-emillstein-4278_1.jpg Kanso, Ethiopia MARCH 2019 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.” https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ethiopia-201903-emillstein-5125_1.jpg Gidole, Ethiopia MARCH 2019 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ethiopia-201903-emillstein-5731_1.jpg Gidole, Ethiopia MARCH 2019 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.” https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ethiopia-201903-emillstein-6057_1.jpg Gidole, Ethiopia MARCH 2019 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.” https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ethiopia-201903-emillstein-6116_1.jpg Gidole, Ethiopia MARCH 2019 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ethiopia-201903-emillstein-6207_1.jpg Gidole, Ethiopia MARCH 2019 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ethiopia-201903-emillstein-6329_1.jpg Gidole, Ethiopia MARCH 2019 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.” https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ethiopia-201903-emillstein-7719_1.jpg Hartasheik, Ethiopia MARCH 2019 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ethiopia-201903-emillstein-7984_1.jpg Hartasheik, Ethiopia MARCH 2019 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ethiopia-201903-emillstein-8335_1.jpg Hartasheik, Ethiopia MARCH 2019 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.” https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ethiopia-201903-emillstein-8354_1.jpg Hartasheik, Ethiopia MARCH 2019 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.” https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ethiopia-201903-emillstein-8437_1.jpg Hartasheik, Ethiopia MARCH 2019 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.” https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ethiopia-201903-emillstein-9191_1.jpg Dembal, Ethiopia MARCH 2019 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.” https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/zimbabwe-201903-emillstein-0222_1.jpg Chimanimani, Zimbabwe MARCH 2019 Women wait in line for food at a distribution point called Skyline, on a ridge surrounded by mudslides. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/zimbabwe-201903-emillstein-0571_1.jpg Chimanimani, Zimbabwe. MARCH 2019 Children wait in line for clothing at a distribution point called Skyline, on a ridge surrounded by mudslides. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/zimbabwe-201903-emillstein-1239_1.jpg Chimanimani, Zimbabwe MARCH 2019 People wait in line for food at a distribution point called Skyline, on a ridge surrounded by mudslides. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/zimbabwe-201903-emillstein-1763_1.jpg Chimanimani, Zimbabwe MARCH 2019 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/zimbabwe-201903-emillstein-2290_1.jpg Ngangu, Zimbabwe MARCH 2019 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/zimbabwe-201903-emillstein-2514_1.jpg Ngangu, Zimbabwe MARCH 2019 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/zimbabwe-201903-emillstein-2547_1.jpg Ngangu, Zimbabwe MARCH 2019 A box of muddy shoes that Anthony Machingauta, 52, recovered from his home. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/zimbabwe-201903-emillstein-2608_1.jpg Ngangu, Zimbabwe MARCH 2019 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/zimbabwe-201903-emillstein-2878_1.jpg Ngangu, Zimbabwe MARCH 2019 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/zimbabwe-201903-emillstein-1796_1.jpg Chimanimani, Zimbabwe MARCH 2019 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/zimbabwe-201903-emillstein-1873_1.jpg Chimanimani, Zimbabwe MARCH 2019 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/niger-201810-emillstein-3503.jpg Sargane, Niger OCTOBER 2018 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/niger-201810-emillstein-2704.jpg Sargane, Niger OCTOBER 2018 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/niger-201810-emillstein-3443_1.jpg Sargane, Niger OCTOBER 2018 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/niger-201810-emillstein-3716.jpg 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. 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/niger-201810-emillstein-4092.jpg Mercy Corps - Africa | ezramillstein.com View Mercy Corps - Africa by ezramillstein.com. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/niger-201810-emillstein-7209.jpg Sargane, Niger. OCTOBER 2018 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.” https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/niger-201810-emillstein-6642.jpg Baleyara, Niger OCTOBER 2018 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/uganda-201711-emillstein-0270.jpg Bidi Bidi, Uganda NOVEMBER 2017 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," 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/uganda-201712-emillstein-4009_1.jpg Bidi Bidi, Uganda DECEMBER 2017 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/uganda-201711-emillstein-0695_1.jpg Bidi Bidi, Uganda NOVERMBER 2017 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/uganda-201712-emillstein-3795_1.jpg Moyo, Uganda DECEMBER 2017 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 "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." 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/uganda-201711-emillstein-1535.jpg Bidi Bidi, Uganda DECEMBER 2017 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. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/uganda-201712-emillstein-0633.jpg Bidi Bidi, Uganda DECEMBER 2017 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. https://ezramillstein.com/mercy-corps---asia monthly 0.8 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/indonesia-201805-emillstein-1732.jpg Terara, Indonesia MAY 2018 Women transplant rice seedlings. They are members of a farmers group, which is helping them and the other farmers learn how to grow stronger, heartier crops in the face of worsening drought. Lombok is extremely vulnerable to climate change, with shorter rainy seasons and longer dry seasons that put precious harvests at risk. Mercy Corps has helped the farmers group he mentors endure drought with better farming practices and business training. Mercy Corps trains farmers to organize local farmers groups where farmers work together and support each other. They also learn to start agribusinesses to supplement their income. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/indonesia-201805-emillstein-1640.jpg Terara, Indonesia MAY 2018 Women farmers transplant rice seedlings in Pak Sahwil's fields. They are members of a farmers group, which is helping them and the other farmers learn how to grow stronger, heartier crops in the face of worsening drought. Lombok is extremely vulnerable to climate change, with shorter rainy seasons and longer dry seasons that put precious harvests at risk. Sahwil, 42, is a lifelong farmer on Lombok, and the son of rice farmers. He can recall the dry seasons as far back as 15 years. As he gets older, he worries about longer droughts causing harvest failure. “Sometimes, climate change causes failure. What I feel the most is a long dry season,” he says. On Lombok, the dry season is now regularly starting a month earlier and lasting a month longer, leading to dangerous water shortages for farmers. “I’m very worried. Not just for next year, but even for this year. Accessing water is becoming difficult,” Pak Sawhil says. Mercy Corps has helped Pak Sawhil and the farmers group he mentors endure drought with better farming practices and business training. “Our objective as farmers is to increase our production. Because the Mercy Corps mission is the same as ours, we cooperate. This is a good opportunity, in my opinion,” he says. Mercy Corps trains farmers like Pak Sawhil to organize local farmers groups where farmers work together and support each other. They also learn to start agribusinesses to supplement their income. Pak Sawhil also works for the governmental agriculture agency. When he saw how Mercy Corps was improving local farmers, he extended the partnership to other districts. “Because Mercy Corps is successful with my group, I share the knowledge with the group in this village,” he says. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/indonesia-201805-emillstein-1035.jpg Terara, Indonesia MAY 2018 Pak Sahwil, 42, stands in his vegetable fields. He is a rice farmer on Lombok in eastern Indonesia. Mercy Corps is helping him and the 60 other farmers in his farmers group learn how to grow stronger, heartier crops in the face of worsening drought. Lombok is extremely vulnerable to climate change, with shorter rainy seasons and longer dry seasons that put precious harvests at risk. A lifelong farmer on Lombok—and the son of rice farmers—Pak Sahwil can recall the dry seasons as far back as 15 years. As he gets older, he worries about longer droughts causing harvest failure. “Sometimes, climate change causes failure. What I feel the most is a long dry season,” he says. On Lombok, the dry season is now regularly starting a month earlier and lasting a month longer, leading to dangerous water shortages for farmers. “I’m very worried. Not just for next year, but even for this year. Accessing water is becoming difficult,” Pak Sahwil says. Mercy Corps has helped Pak Sahwil and the farmers group he mentors endure drought with better farming practices and business training. “Our objective as farmers is to increase our production. Because the Mercy Corps mission is the same as ours, we cooperate. This is a good opportunity, in my opinion,” he says. Mercy Corps trains farmers like Pak Sahwil to organize local farmers groups where farmers work together and support each other. They also learn to start agribusinesses to supplement their income. Pak Sahwil also works for the governmental agriculture agency. When he saw how Mercy Corps was improving local farmers, he extended the partnership to other districts. “Because Mercy Corps is successful with my group, I share the knowledge with the group in this village,” he says. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/indonesia-201805-emillstein-2934.jpg Terara, Indonesia MAY 2018 Ida sits on bags of recently harvested rice. At 23 years old, she is the youngest female farmer in Terara, a small village on the island of Lombok. As far as she knows, she’s the youngest farmer in all four neighboring villages as well. Ida started working in the rice fields when she was 13 years old, in the seventh grade. She learned how to farm by watching her parents and her two older brothers, who’ve been farming since she was born. Ida’s dream was to become a pilot — to explore outside of her village. Instead, she’s followed in the footsteps of her family. She dropped out of school after the ninth grade, in 2012, as a result of mounting pressure from her parents – particularly her mother – who felt she should be helping them in the field instead of studying. Ida’s mom holds a very conservative, traditional Indonesian view. She never went to school, and believes there’s no need for girls to pursue higher education. In part, because it’s difficult to find jobs with or without education, but mostly because she believes they’re needed most at home – to take care of the family and tend to the fields. When Ida’s asked if she enjoys farming, she says she does because she has to, because there’s no other choice. As the treasurer of her farmer group, Ida is one of the most trusted members in her community, tasked with tracking and managing finances each month. It’s a position with great responsibility, which requires high attention to detail. Mercy Corps is helping Ida and her group produce greater yields in the face of an increasingly challenging climate by providing training on effective farming practices. We have also provided training in administration and financial reporting, so Ida and other leaders of her group are better positioned to help their group stay strong. Mercy Corps has also connected Ida to Mandiri Cash, which has allowed her to both save time and money — about 2 million rupiah of her own savings ($143 USD). https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/indonesia-201805-emillstein-2846.jpg Terara, Indonesia MAY 2018 Pak Sahwil, 42, stands in his fields. He is a rice farmer on Lombok in eastern Indonesia. Mercy Corps is helping him and the 60 other farmers in his farmers group learn how to grow stronger, heartier crops in the face of worsening drought. Lombok is extremely vulnerable to climate change, with shorter rainy seasons and longer dry seasons that put precious harvests at risk. A lifelong farmer on Lombok—and the son of rice farmers—Pak Sahwil can recall the dry seasons as far back as 15 years. As he gets older, he worries about longer droughts causing harvest failure. “Sometimes, climate change causes failure. What I feel the most is a long dry season,” he says. On Lombok, the dry season is now regularly starting a month earlier and lasting a month longer, leading to dangerous water shortages for farmers. “I’m very worried. Not just for next year, but even for this year. Accessing water is becoming difficult,” Pak Sahwil says. Mercy Corps has helped Pak Sahwil and the farmers group he mentors endure drought with better farming practices and business training. “Our objective as farmers is to increase our production. Because the Mercy Corps mission is the same as ours, we cooperate. This is a good opportunity, in my opinion,” he says. Mercy Corps trains farmers like Pak Sahwil to organize local farmers groups where farmers work together and support each other. They also learn to start agribusinesses to supplement their income. Pak Sahwil also works for the governmental agriculture agency. When he saw how Mercy Corps was improving local farmers, he extended the partnership to other districts. “Because Mercy Corps is successful with my group, I share the knowledge with the group in this village,” he says. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/indonesia-201805-emillstein-3050.jpg Terara, Indonesia MAY 2018 Muhammad Nuh Gazali, 39, holds his son, Muhammad Cholil Al Gazali, 4, at the end of a day of harvesting. Indonesia’s farmers help feed 249 million people. But climate change is threatening their way of life with longer droughts and erratic rainy seasons that threaten the harvests they rely on. In Indonesia, climate change is an ever-present reality. The average temperature in Lombok has risen nearly three degrees since 1948, and is predicted to rise another two degrees by 2060—a dangerous reality for farmers who depend on the climate to survive. Droughts in Lombok can last for months and threaten the precious harvests that farmers rely on. Rainfall in Indonesia has decreased by 3 percent since 1900 and climate change is expected to get worse over the next 50 years. Lombok is predicted to experience a massive decline in water reserves by 2030, threatening the island’s farmers and the people who rely on their harvests to survive. In just 20 years, the risk of crop failure due to climate change is expected to double on Lombok. In one of the world’s most vulnerable places to climate change, Mercy Corps has helped more than 6,000 farmers increase their yields and the incomes that support their families. Over the next three years, Mercy Corps aims to help 20,000 rice farmers in Indonesia increase their incomes by at least 28 percent. Mercy Corps teaches rice farmers how to select the best seeds to plant and the best time of year to plant them, as well as how to detect and treat disease. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/indonesia-201805-emillstein-2716.jpg Terara, Indonesia MAY 2018 Muhammad Nuh Gazali, 39, stands among smoke from burning rice chaff at the end of a day of harvesting. Indonesia’s farmers help feed 249 million people. But climate change is threatening their way of life with longer droughts and erratic rainy seasons that threaten the harvests they rely on. In Indonesia, climate change is an ever-present reality. The average temperature in Lombok has risen nearly three degrees since 1948, and is predicted to rise another two degrees by 2060—a dangerous reality for farmers who depend on the climate to survive. Droughts in Lombok can last for months and threaten the precious harvests that farmers rely on. Rainfall in Indonesia has decreased by 3 percent since 1900 and climate change is expected to get worse over the next 50 years. Lombok is predicted to experience a massive decline in water reserves by 2030, threatening the island’s farmers and the people who rely on their harvests to survive. In just 20 years, the risk of crop failure due to climate change is expected to double on Lombok. In one of the world’s most vulnerable places to climate change, Mercy Corps has helped more than 6,000 farmers increase their yields and the incomes that support their families. Over the next three years, Mercy Corps aims to help 20,000 rice farmers in Indonesia increase their incomes by at least 28 percent. Mercy Corps teaches rice farmers how to select the best seeds to plant and the best time of year to plant them, as well as how to detect and treat disease. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/timorleste-201805-emillstein-2642.jpg Maubisse, Timor-Leste MAY 2018 Rainbows form over the beautiful, rugged mountains of central Timor-Leste, one of the hungriest countries in the world. Low crop diversity is only compounded by frequent floods and landslides during the rainy season and drought conditions during the dry season, which pose serious threats to food security. Nearly one-quarter of the population is undernourished, and more than 50 percent of children under 5 are stunted. During the lean season each year, from October to March, nearly two-thirds of the population suffers food shortages. Mercy Corps is helping vulnerable farming communities work together to increase their resilience in the face of climate change, providing the tools and resources they need to grow stronger crops and persevere. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/timorleste-201805-emillstein-0453.jpg Faturedalau, Timor-Leste MAY 2018 Romeo, 28, holds his daughter Maria, 2. His niece Lourdes is a 19-year-old girl whose dream is to become the Minister of Education. For four years now, she’s been using a solar lantern provided by Mercy Corps to study at night, after completing her daily chores. When asked if she had any advice or words of encouragement to share with other, younger Timorese girls who are chasing their own dreams, Lourdes said "Being young, a girl, is something to be grateful for. Take the opportunity to chase your dreams — while your parents are still here, while they’re still able to educate you and send you to school. Go to school, and take advantage of any opportunity to focus on your dreams. Don’t think about something else. Most girls in Timor marry young. Please, don’t get married young. Finish your education, find a job, and help your parents, give back to your parents for helping educate you.” https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/timorleste-201805-emillstein-1854.jpg Mulo, Timor-Leste MAY 2018 Moises Lopes, 10, rests after collecting water in the central highlands of Timor-Leste. His village has benefitted from Mercy Corps programs. Americo Pereira, 45, is a community leader from Mulo. He says that Mercy Corps M-RED program has benefitted the village tremendously. “I’m really thankful and happy for all the things that the Mercy Corps M-RED program has done for us. Before, we didn't have any knowledge of farming techniques, but because of the Mercy Corps intervention, now we understand and know how to use techniques to make sure that we have a good plantation and a good harvest.” Farming in Timor-Leste depends on the dry and rainy seasons. Because of climate change, the dry seasons are longer and the rains are harder to predict. That leaves farmers with less to feed their families. Hunger is a serious problem in Timor-Leste, where most families in the rural mountains depend on farming to survive. Mercy Corps is helping farmers manage their own farmers groups, where local communities pull together rather than work alone. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/timorleste-201805-emillstein-2055.jpg Mulo, Timor-Leste. MAY 2018 Cazmira Cordoso lives in the remote mountainous village of Mulo, where Mercy Corps is helping 20 households work together to feed their children, make a living, and become more resilient to the adverse effects of climate change. Villagers’ homes and garden plots are scattered up and down a steep mountainside. There’s evidence of climate stress everywhere. Cracked dirt and clouds of dust show signs of little rain. Steep drop offs show the trails of past landslides, and new man-made barriers (gabion baskets, or caged rocks) stand waiting to shield homes and roads from the next. The dry seasons are getting longer here and the rains are becoming harder to predict. That leaves farmers like Cazmira with less to feed their families. As the dry season gets worse, life will only get harder. Knowing how to properly plant and care for their crops has become a key ingredient to a good harvest. Because they might not be able to control the weather, but they can make sure they’re using the best practices to increase their chances of success. With training from Mercy Corps, Cazmira’s community is growing legumes (red beans) to eat and sell. They’ve also built a wall of bamboo to protect their gardens further downhill from future landslides and flash floods. Each household has their own plot of legumes, but they all support one another. Together they plant and harvest as a group, and then sell and divide the earnings. Cazmira and the other women in her group plant these legumes twice a year. This crop, planted before the dry season, will likely die. The ones that survive will be used for seed for the rainy season. Those will be sold to provide for their families. Each household produces about 20 buckets of legumes a year. Each bucket (25 liters) sells for $30 USD. Through the M-RED program, Mercy Corps is working with 35 other vulnerable small farming communities in Timor-Leste who are living in hazard-prone areas vulnerable to drought, flash floods and landslides. By employing smart farming techniques and taking various disaster risk reduction measures, these communities are becoming more resilient to the adverse effects of climate change. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/timorleste-201805-emillstein-3119.jpg Liurai, Timor-Leste. MAY 2018 Evaristo Soares, 40, stands next to his bamboo rainwater collection system. His remote rural community is a three-hour walk from the nearest market. Climate change has disrupted the rainy seasons they have depended on for generations, making it especially challenging for this community of 39 families to provide for themselves. Rains are scarce, and water is precious. Earlier this year, Mercy Corps taught Evaristo and the other farmers in his community to build rainwater harvesting systems out of bamboo to collect precious rainwater and better endure Timor-Leste’s worsening dry seasons. Before this rainwater collection system, Evaristo and his community had to walk 40 minutes to the nearest water source — and during the dry season, there was often nothing but a dry riverbed. Evaristo says “We love the keyhole gardening and the rainwater harvesting because these two things support each other. Before, we depended on the coffee. We harvested it once or twice a year and had to wait to sell and be able to buy things. Now we have keyhole gardening and we have water to water our vegetables and all the vegetation in the garden. Even in just two months we can harvest something and sell it.” https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nepal-201803-emillstein-0345.jpg Chyamrangbesi, Nepal MARCH 2018 Sabitri Phuyal and her husband, Shyam Prasad Dahal, work in their vegetable fields, surrounded by boulders that rained down on their village during the earthquake of 2015. They depended on their vegetable farm for food and income until the 2015 earthquakes triggered a landslide that wiped out their fields and made it unsafe for them to live in their home. They lived in a temporary shelter with four other families for nine months, and couldn’t work, until Mercy Corps built a gabion wall that secured the hillside above the couple’s home. After the wall was built, Shyam and Sabitri finally felt safe enough to return and begin rebuilding their lives. They took a Mercy Corps’-facilitated vegetable farming training and received plastic sheeting to build a greenhouse, and also participated in Mercy Corps’ family dialogue training, which helps women and heads of household work to together to become stronger and more resilient. “We had lost all hope of coming back. With all that happened, we don't have enough wealth to relocate somewhere else and start a new life as well. So we got encouragement to start farming here, start making our livelihood here again,” says Shyam. “I feel happy when he asks me for my opinion,” Sabitri says. “Before he would just do it himself, and he would work in the fields himself. And I would just think, 'OK that's his job. I'll just let him do it.' But when he asks me, I feel like, 'OK, this is my responsibility too.' I feel good about it. “ https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nepal-201803-emillstein-0471.jpg Chyamrangbesi, Nepal MARCH 2018 Sabitri Phuyal weeds her family's tomato plants. She and her husband Shyam Prasad depended on their vegetable farm for food and income until the 2015 earthquakes triggered a landslide that wiped out their fields and made it unsafe for them to live in their home. They lived in a temporary shelter with four other families for nine months, and couldn’t work, until Mercy Corps built a gabion wall that secured the hillside above the couple’s home. After the wall was built, Shyam and Sabitri finally felt safe enough to return and begin rebuilding their lives. They took a Mercy Corps’-facilitated vegetable farming training and received plastic sheeting to build a greenhouse, and also participated in Mercy Corps’ family dialogue training, which helps women and heads of household work to together to become stronger and more resilient. “We had lost all hope of coming back. With all that happened, we don't have enough wealth to relocate somewhere else and start a new life as well. So we got encouragement to start farming here, start making our livelihood here again,” says Shyam. “I feel happy when he asks me for my opinion,” Sabitri says. “Before he would just do it himself, and he would work in the fields himself. And I would just think, 'OK that's his job. I'll just let him do it.' But when he asks me, I feel like, 'OK, this is my responsibility too.' I feel good about it. “ https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nepal-201803-emillstein-2518.jpg Bethanchok, Nepal MARCH 2018 Sunmaya Rumba lives at the top of a tall, craggly stone staircase in a community badly affected by the 2015 earthquakes. Her home still shows the damage: the second story is pocked and cracked and looks as though it may crumble at any moment. When Sunmaya heard Mercy Corps’ was providing mason training to help people rebuild earthquake resistant homes, she was motivated to help her community recover and mobilized a group in her community to participate. She successfully completed the 50-day training to become a mason, and though it’s difficult for her to get hired as a woman, she was able to use her skills to rebuild the home of her mother-in-law, Thulimaya Waiba (in background), which was destroyed in the disaster. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nepal-201803-emillstein-2633.jpg Bethanchok, Nepal MARCH 2018 Sunmaya Rumba lives at the top of a tall, craggly stone staircase in a community badly affected by the 2015 earthquakes. Her home still shows the damage: the second story is pocked and cracked and looks as though it may crumble at any moment. When Sunmaya heard Mercy Corps’ was providing mason training to help people rebuild earthquake resistant homes, she was motivated to help her community recover and mobilized a group in her community to participate. Sunmaya successfully completed the 50-day training to become a mason, and though it’s difficult for her to get hired as a woman, she was able to use her skills to rebuild the home of her mother-in-law, which was destroyed in the disaster. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nepal-201803-emillstein-3637.jpg Raitenpur, Nepal MARCH 2018 Anjana Chaudhary, 16, is a bashful, giggly teenager with sparkly eyes and huge smile. She is in grade 9 at the secondary school in her village, a rural area in westernmost Nepal where girls face extreme challenges to receiving an education, including the pressure to marry early, unequal household responsibilities, and a lack of familial support. Over 50 percent of girls in Kailari are not enrolled in school, and 40 percent are married before their 18th birthday. Mercy Corps’ STEM program supports in-school girls with extra tutoring sessions in math and science two days per week to help them complete their education. Mercy Corps also improves infrastructure when needed; Anjana’s school received a water tap and improved sanitation facilities, that lack of which were previously causing dropouts. Participating in the program has helped Anjana build confidence and thrive in her classes, and she plans to stay in school so she can get a good job when she is older. "I was able to learn more than in regular school," she says of the tutoring sessions. I wanted to do it, "because it will make my future bright." Anjana’s mother, Balkumari, also participated in the parent training Mercy Corps facilitated at the school, which aims to increase parents’ support of girls’ education. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nepal-201803-emillstein-3094_1.jpg Fulbari, Nepal MARCH 2018 Dil Kumarf Poudel, 35, cares for her two children and runs her household alone, as her husband has migrated to Malaysia to work as a daily wage laborer. Livelihood opportunities are scarce here, especially for girls, who face incredible barriers to education and income generation, including the pressure to marry early, unequal household responsibilities, and a lack of familial support. Dil married at 15 — while in grade 8 — but continued her studies, even though it was difficult. However, after she failed her grade 10 exam and got pregnant, she dropped out completely, instead tending to her children full time and supporting them with them with agricultural work. She regretted not completing her education and felt her life could never improve. (The grade 10 exam is equivalent to a high school diploma and is required for higher education or skilled work.)Mercy Corps’ STEM program supports out-of-school girls age 16-30 with life skills education, financial literacy classes and access to loans, so they can build better livelihoods and improve their lives. Dil began attending the program meetings several years ago, a move that transformed her view of herself and helped her build the confidence to retake her grade 10 exam and complete her education. With her grade 10 certification, she has been able to take a position on the board of the local school and now works to improve its facilities and ensure students get the education they deserve. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nepal-201803-emillstein-5253.jpg Lalitpur, Nepal MARCH 2018 Seema Chaudhary, 23, separates lentils from chaff. For years Lalitpur — a small, indigenous Tharu village of 22 households — was at risk from the nearby river: the water would rise repeatedly, and quickly, wiping out crops and livestock and forcing families from their homes. Ten years ago the flooding was so bad it killed all the livestock and displaced the entire community. Mercy Corps’ M-RED program operates in this region — which is highly vulnerable to climate-related disasters — building mitigation structures and helping communities strengthen their livelihoods and prepare for future crises. With Mercy Corps’ support, Seema’s community worked together to plant sugarcane along the river bank to hold back the water, and began cultivating it in the nearby fields to sell to nearby sugar factories. The flood risk was decreased so much after the planting the community was able to reclaim 40 hectares of land for farming and living, and they continue to grow sugarcane together for income that is invested in shared equipment and resources for the community. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nepal-201803-emillstein-5468.jpg Lalitpur, Nepal MARCH 2018 Soniya Devi Chaudhary, 54, separates lentils from chaff. For years Lalitpur — a small, indigenous Tharu village of 22 households — was at risk from the nearby river: the water would rise repeatedly, and quickly, wiping out crops and livestock and forcing families from their homes. Ten years ago the flooding was so bad it killed all the livestock and displaced the entire community. Mercy Corps’ M-RED program operates in this region — which is highly vulnerable to climate-related disasters — building mitigation structures and helping communities strengthen their livelihoods and prepare for future crises. With Mercy Corps’ support, Soniya’s community worked together to plant sugarcane along the river bank to hold back the water, and began cultivating it in the nearby fields to sell to nearby sugar factories. The flood risk was decreased so much after the planting the community was able to reclaim 40 hectares of land for farming and living, and they continue to grow sugarcane together for income that is invested in shared equipment and resources for the community. Soniya also participated in Mercy Corps’ financial literacy training and has learned how to save money. She says she now raises pigs and grows other vegetables now that the risk of flooding is lower. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/nepal-201803-emillstein-4854.jpg Lalitpur, Nepal MARCH 2018 Sarita Chaudhary, 54, plants sugarcane. For years her community — a small, indigenous Tharu village of 22 households — was at risk from the nearby river: the water would rise repeatedly, and quickly, wiping out crops and livestock and forcing families from their homes. Ten years ago the flooding was so bad it killed all the livestock and displaced the entire community. Without animals or land to farm on, Sarita had no way to provide for her children, and nowhere else to go. To help Sarita and the community build resilience to climate-related flooding, Mercy Corps helped them learn to grow sugarcane, planting it along the river bank to hold back the water and cultivating it in the nearby fields to be sell to local sugar factories for income. The flood risk was decreased so much after the planting the community was able to reclaim 40 hectares of land for farming and living, allowing every family to return home, including Sarita’s. https://ezramillstein.com/mercy-corps---latin-america monthly 0.8 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/guatemala-201905-emillstein-2882_1.jpg Guatemala City, Guatemala MAY 2019 Sofia, 2, plays on a swing in a park Mercy Corps built in her community. These infrastructure projects — playgrounds, exercise areas, community centers — are part of Mercy Corps’ CONVIVIMOS program, which is working in Guatemala City’s most violent areas to promote cohesion and help people reclaim their communities. The spaces offer families important neutral territory in places otherwise driven by territory-based gang violence, and offer them the opportunity to experience and feel rooted in their communities in a more positive way. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/guatemala-201905-emillstein-2823_1.jpg Guatemala City, Guatemala MAY 2019 Alejandra (green shirt, 5) and her sister Sofia (pink shirt, 2) play in a park Mercy Corps built in their community. These infrastructure projects — playgrounds, exercise areas, community centers — are part of Mercy Corps’ CONVIVIMOS program, which is working in Guatemala City’s most violent areas to promote cohesion and help people reclaim their communities. The spaces offer families important neutral territory in places otherwise driven by territory-based gang violence, and offer them the opportunity to experience and feel rooted in their communities in a more positive way. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/guatemala-201905-emillstein-0881_1.jpg Acul, Guatemala MAY 2019 Catarina Sanchez de León (second from left) at a meeting of her local savings and loan group. Her mother, Maria de León Santiago, lives with her children and grandchildren in a small community in Guatemala’s Western Highlands, an agricultural region characterized by underdevelopment, malnutrition, poverty and a lack of opportunity. She says the needs are immense here — water, sanitation, shelter, food, jobs, etc. — and she often struggles to support her family with farming and weaving. Because of this, migration is a fact of life for Maria — her husband leaves every year to work in a sugarcane plantation to earn money. It’s not what they want, she says, but it’s the only way they can feed their children. Maria has recently started saving for the first time ever through the “Communities Leading Development” program, which is implemented by local partners with technical support from Mercy Corps. The program aims to improve quality of life for families in 200 communities in the Western Highlands, in part by installing community savings and loans groups to build financial stability. Maria is the president of her savings and loan group, and she says she is focused solely on saving right now, so she can give her family a better life than she had growing up. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/guatemala-201905-emillstein-1129_1.jpg Acul, Guatemala MAY 2019 Maria de León Santiago lives with her children and grandchildren in a small community in Guatemala’s Western Highlands, an agricultural region characterized by underdevelopment, malnutrition, poverty and a lack of opportunity. She says the needs are immense here — water, sanitation, shelter, food, jobs, etc. — and she often struggles to support her family with farming and weaving. Because of this, migration is a fact of life for Maria — her husband leaves every year to work in a sugarcane plantation to earn money. It’s not what they want, she says, but it’s the only way they can feed their children. Maria has recently started saving for the first time ever through the “Communities Leading Development” program, which is implemented by local partners with technical support from Mercy Corps. The program aims to improve quality of life for families in 200 communities in the Western Highlands, in part by installing community savings and loans groups to build financial stability. Maria is the president of her savings and loan group, and she says she is focused solely on saving right now, so she can give her family a better life than she had growing up. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/guatemala-201905-emillstein-1021_1.jpg Acul, Guatemala MAY 2019 Juan Deleon Sanchez, 7 months. His grandmother, Maria de León Santiago, lives in a small community in Guatemala’s Western Highlands, an agricultural region characterized by underdevelopment, malnutrition, poverty and a lack of opportunity. She says the needs are immense here — water, sanitation, shelter, food, jobs, etc. — and she often struggles to support her family with farming and weaving. Because of this, migration is a fact of life for Maria — her husband leaves every year to work in a sugarcane plantation to earn money. It’s not what they want, she says, but it’s the only way they can feed their children. Maria has recently started saving for the first time ever through the “Communities Leading Development” program, which is implemented by local partners with technical support from Mercy Corps. The program aims to improve quality of life for families in 200 communities in the Western Highlands, in part by installing community savings and loans groups to build financial stability. Maria is the president of her savings and loan group, and she says she is focused solely on saving right now, so she can give her family a better life than she had growing up. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/guatemala-201905-emillstein-1658_1.jpg Acul, Guatemala MAY 2019 Heidy, 9, weaves on front of her family's home in a small community in Guatemala’s Western Highlands. It is an agricultural region characterized by underdevelopment, malnutrition, poverty and a lack of opportunity. Her grandmother, Maria de León Santiago, recently started saving for the first time ever through the “Communities Leading Development” program, which is implemented by local partners with technical support from Mercy Corps. The program aims to improve quality of life for families in 200 communities in the Western Highlands, in part by installing community savings and loans groups to build financial stability. Maria is the president of her savings and loan group, and she says she is focused solely on saving right now, so she can give her family a better life than she had growing up. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/guatemala-201905-emillstein-1041_1.jpg Acul, Guatemala MAY 2019 A church in the center of Acul. Much of Guatemala’s migration occurs out the Western Highlands, an agricultural region characterized by underdevelopment, malnutrition, poverty and a lack of opportunity, and where generations-long conflicts, largely over land and other resources, are holding back development. Mercy Corps' CLD program works to build community cohesion and empower people to work together to advocate for their own development projects, according to their needs. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/guatemala-201905-emillstein-0518_1.jpg Panimatzalám, Guatemala MAY 2019 Olga Lucretia Matzar, 18, holds dried corn in front of her family's home. We first met Olga in 2017 when she was a participant of Mercy Corps’ AgriJoven program, which works to prevent youth migration out of Guatemala’s Western Highlands. At that time, she had dropped out of school so she could work and help support her family, and had thought about migrating to the city for better opportunities. A year and a half later, Olga is more optimistic than ever that she can stay in her community and build a life. Through the program she learned farming techniques to help her parents improve their crops and triple the land they farm, and saved enough through her savings and loan group to return to school. She is now studying to be a teacher, and she wants to be a role model for other young people so they see opportunity in their community and choose not to migrate. Much of Guatemala’s migration occurs out the Western Highlands, an agricultural region characterized by underdevelopment, poverty and a lack of opportunity. AgriJoven provides youth with agricultural training and savings and loan groups, which offer them a chance to see a future in agriculture or invest in other ventures without having to leave home. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/colombia-201905-emillstein-0161_1.jpg Paraguachón, Colombia MAY 2019 Families cross the Venezuela-Colombia border at Paraguachón, Colombia. The border is fluid, with people moving in both directions. Some Venezuelans enter Colombia for as little as a day — long enough to get one meal — up to several weeks or months, to work and stock up on supplies before returning home. Others arrive with suitcases and anything else they can carry, and may stay indefinitely. Colombians also enter Venezuela through this crossing, to purchase items that are still available at significantly cheaper prices there. In the week before this visit between 400 and 800 people crossed into Colombia every day through the crossing at Paraguachón, while around 200 crossed into Venezuela. These numbers don’t account for people crossing at any of the 200 illegal crossing sites in La Guajira. In total, more than 1 million Venezuelans have fled to Colombia, fleeing economic, governmental and social collapse that has plunged the majority of the population into poverty, joblessness and near starvation. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/colombia-201905-emillstein-0353_1.jpg Riohacha, Colombia MAY 2019 Ana Maria holds her 3 month-old daughter Fabiola. She was pregnant with Fabiola when the family received a cash disbursement from Mercy Corps, and the money allowed her to get medical care for the birth. They say they would have had no way to go to the hospital without the assistance. The family also purchased essential household items for their shelter. Ana Maria and her husband Jose Eduardo Monasterio Castañeda withstood the crisis in Venezuela for as long as they could, but when their situation grew so desperate that they were drinking glasses of water for dinner, they made the painful decision to leave their home and seek survival in Colombia. More than 1 million Venezuelans have fled to Colombia, fleeing economic, governmental and social collapse that has plunged the majority of the population into poverty, joblessness and near starvation. Many, like Jose and Ana Maria, are funneling into communities that already struggled with poverty and lack of opportunity, and resources are at a breaking point. Jose and Ana Maria now live with their five children in a small room at the back of another house along a busy street in Riohacha. They earn money selling small goods and mobile phone minutes on the street where they live, but the income is not enough, and Jose worries about his children’s future. Mercy Corps is distributing emergency cash to help vulnerable Venezuelans in Colombia meet their urgent needs, including food, medicine and shelter. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/colombia-201905-emillstein-1180_1.jpg Riohacha, Colombia MAY 2019 Eduard, 6. With his father Jose Eduardo Monasterio Castañeda, in front of their family's shack. Jose and his wife Ana Maria withstood the crisis in Venezuela for as long as they could, but when their situation grew so desperate that they were drinking glasses of water for dinner, they made the painful decision to leave their home and seek survival in Colombia. More than 1 million Venezuelans have fled to Colombia, fleeing economic, governmental and social collapse that has plunged the majority of the population into poverty, joblessness and near starvation. Many, like Jose and Ana Maria, are funneling into communities that already struggled with poverty and lack of opportunity, and resources are at a breaking point. Jose and Ana Maria now live with their five children in a small room at the back of another house along a busy street in Riohacha. They earn money selling small goods and mobile phone minutes on the street where they live, but the income is not enough and Jose worries about his children’s future. Mercy Corps is distributing emergency cash to help vulnerable Venezuelans in Colombia meet their urgent needs, including food, medicine and shelter. Ana Maria was pregnant with 3-month-old Fabiola when the family received their cash disbursement from Mercy Corps, and the money allowed her to get medical care for the birth. They say they would have had no way to go to the hospital without the assistance. The family also purchased essential household items for their shelter. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/colombia-201905-emillstein-0308_1.jpg Riohacha, Colombia MAY 2019 Paola, 9, lives with her four siblings and parents Jose Eduardo Monasterio Castañeda and Ana Maria. Jose and Ana Maria withstood the crisis in Venezuela for as long as they could, but when their situation grew so desperate that they were drinking glasses of water for dinner, they made the painful decision to leave their home and seek survival in Colombia. More than 1 million Venezuelans have fled to Colombia, fleeing economic, governmental and social collapse that has plunged the majority of the population into poverty, joblessness and near starvation. Many, like Jose and Ana Maria, are funneling into communities that already struggled with poverty and lack of opportunity, and resources are at a breaking point. Jose and Ana Maria now live with their five children in a small room at the back of another house along a busy street in Riohacha. They earn money selling small goods and mobile phone minutes on the street where they live, but the income is not enough and Jose worries about his children’s future. Mercy Corps is distributing emergency cash to help vulnerable Venezuelans in Colombia meet their urgent needs, including food, medicine and shelter. Ana Maria was pregnant with 3-month-old Fabiola when the family received their cash disbursement from Mercy Corps, and the money allowed her to get medical care for the birth. They say they would have had no way to go to the hospital without the assistance. The family also purchased essential household items for their shelter. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/colombia-201905-emillstein-1090_1.jpg Riohacha, Colombia MAY 2019 Eduard, 6, lies on a bed with his 3 month-old sister Fabiola in his family's shack. They live with their three siblings, and parents Jose Eduardo Monasterio Castañeda and Ana Maria. Jose and Ana Maria withstood the crisis in Venezuela for as long as they could, but when their situation grew so desperate that they were drinking glasses of water for dinner, they made the painful decision to leave their home and seek survival in Colombia. More than 1 million Venezuelans have fled to Colombia, fleeing economic, governmental and social collapse that has plunged the majority of the population into poverty, joblessness and near starvation. Many, like Jose and Ana Maria, are funneling into communities that already struggled with poverty and lack of opportunity, and resources are at a breaking point. Jose and Ana Maria now live with their five children in a small room at the back of another house along a busy street in Riohacha. They earn money selling small goods and mobile phone minutes on the street where they live, but the income is not enough and Jose worries about his children’s future. Mercy Corps is distributing emergency cash to help vulnerable Venezuelans in Colombia meet their urgent needs, including food, medicine and shelter. Ana Maria was pregnant with 3-month-old Fabiola when the family received their cash disbursement from Mercy Corps, and the money allowed her to get medical care for the birth. They say they would have had no way to go to the hospital without the assistance. The family also purchased essential household items for their shelter. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/haiti-201709-emillstein-6682.jpg Ilè, Haiti EPTEMBER 2017 Neyis Mari Ilomèn, 51, lives with her husband and six children. Hurricane Matthew battered Ilè badly in 2016; some houses were destroyed, some crops were completely lost, and there there were many mudslides. Most of the households in the area suffered between 60-80% loss of their harvest from the storm. Mercy Corps lent her seeds, as well as money for other agricultural inputs. Our farmer association partners worked with Mercy Corps to design a response that would reinforce the long term capacity building we have been doing and not create dependency on handouts. Mercy Corps provided seeds to the partners, who in turn distributed them to the most vulnerable families, allowing them to replant during the next harvest season. In return, the farmers donated a portion of the seeds from their harvest to the farmer association. Mercy Corps procured silos so the seeds could be stored. This way, through the hurricane season this year, they have seeds in storage as a form of insurance. If they are not needed, the seeds can be sold to help fund the associations to continue providing training and credit to the farmers. https://ezramillstein.com/habitat-for-humanity-international monthly 0.8 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/JCWP-11-16952-EM.jpg Léogâne, Haiti NOVEMBER 6, 2011 Former President Jimmy Carter inspects one of the new homes built on the site of the 2011 Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-27630-EM.jpg Port-au-Prince, Haiti NOVEMBER 11, 2010 Samdi Ednan lives in Cité Soleil, an extremely impoverished and densely populated area of Port-au-Prince. Habitat for Humanity is reaching out to his community, in order to help improve housing. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ARME-08-11652-EM.jpg Nshavan, Armenia OCTOBER 8, 2008 Volunteer Gegham Badalyan sands the ceiling of Lyuba Stepanyan's bedroom. Her house is being renovated thanks to Habitat for Humanity Armenia. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ARME-08-11604-EM.jpg Nshavan, Armenia OCTOBER 8, 2008 A bucket of paint in a bedroom in Lyuba Stepanyan's house, which is being renovated thanks to Habitat for Humanity Armenia. As much as 70 percent of the community's housing stock is need of rebuilding or serious renovation, and 30 percent does not meet minimum building standards. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ARME-08-12566-EM.jpg Karakert, Armenia OCTOBER 10, 2008 Norayr Sargsyan inside his family's dilapidated apartment, in a crumbling Soviet-era apartment building. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ARME-08-12884-EM.jpg Armavir, Armenia OCTOBER 10, 2008 Six year-old Diego Manasyan lives with his mother Ellada and his two sisters in this deserted and crumbling Soviet-era building. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ARME-08-12801-EM.jpg Armavir, Armenia OCTOBER 10, 2008 Six year-old Diego Manasyan lives with his mother Ellada and his two sisters in this deserted and crumbling Soviet-era building. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/TAJI-10-12349-EM.jpg Shulonak, Tajikistan MAY 26, 2010 Zaitunbi Mardonova stands on the porch of her family's house, which is being reinforced against earthquakes thanks to a microloan through Habitat for Humanity Tajikistan. The home was damaged by an earthquake during the summer of 2008. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/UGAN-10-30142-EM.jpg Mayuge, Uganda DECEMBER 10, 2010 A child peers through the slats of a church, at a Habitat for HumanityUganda training. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ZAMB-14-17333-EM.jpg Ndola, Zambia AUGUST 4, 2014 Bupe Malisawa, 14, and her mother Anna, 32, live in the Twapia community in Zambia's copper belt. They have lived in their home for two years; it is part of Habitat for Humanity Zambia's Rural, Urban and Peri-Urban Program, which helps to build low-cost houses for the working poor, who are able to repay a no-profit mortgage over five years. ©Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/ZAMB-14-18243-EM.jpg Lusaka, Zambia AUGUST 6, 2014 Taonga Mikasu, 5, washes dishes with her grandmother Anna Lupasha, 56, in the Chazanga community. Anna takes care of three grandchildren. They have lived in their home since 2013; it was built as part of the Orphans and Vulnerable Children program (OVC) at Habitat for Humanity Zambia. HFH Zambia created its OVC housing program in 2005, in order to respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic that was creating an overwhelming number of orphans. The OVC program focuses on providing appropriate, fully subsidized houses to specifically orphaned and vulnerable children under the age of 18. The project is supported by Irish Aid through Habitat for Humanity Ireland, and is being implemented in Ndola in the Copperbelt Province, and in urban slums around Lusaka. ©Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/CANA-16-13565-EM.jpg Barrhead, Alberta, Canada JUNE 27, 2016 Jashime Sarmiento, 7, plays at the playground behind her family's Habitat home. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/CANA-16-14365-EM.jpg Edmonton, Alberta, Canada JUNE 28, 2016 Siblings Ciera Nadeau (8, red shirt), Parnal Nadeau (6, blue shirt) and Ocean Nadeau (5, blue pants) play on the lawn in front of their family's Habitat home. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/CANA-16-15921-EM.jpg Edmonton, Alberta, Canada JUNE 30, 2016 Nasra Nahar lives in a Habitat home, with her children Hussein Weid (11), Hassan Weid (9) and Jannah Weid (4), pictured here on the family's back porch. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/INDI-15-04900-EM.jpg Kakru, Uttarakhand, India MARCH 3, 2015 Deepika Devi, 11, and her family moved into this new home as part of Habitat for Humanity's response to the devastating floods of 2014. ©Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/INDI-15-04031-EM.jpg Dakhiya, Rajasthan, India MARCH 3, 2015 Geeta Bairwa, 32, and her family worked in partnership with Habitat for Humanity to build a latrine in their compound. ©Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/JCWP-09-30068-EM.jpg Dong Xa, Vietnam NOVEMBER 14, 2009 Rice farmer Dao Van Chuc is helping his 26 year-old son Dao Van Nghia build a Habitat house in Dong Xa fishing village. They worked alongside Habitat volunteers from around the world, who came to build homes as part of the 2009 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/JCWP-09-31946-EM.jpg Hanoi, Vietnam NOVEMBER 18, 2009 Jimmy Carter visited Vietnam for the first time, during the 2009 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/CHIN-13-16942-EM.jpg Panrong, Guangxi, China AUGUST 15, 2013 Feng Jinfeng, 38, hauls stones from a river to help fill the foundation of her family's new house, which is being built with the help of a microcredit loan from Habitat for Humanity China. ©Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/GUAT-11-03849-EMa.jpg Antigua, Guatemala APRIL 24, 2011 An Easter procession passes through the streets of Antigua, in honor of Holy Week in Guatemala. A Habitat for Humanity Build Louder advocacy team was in the country building Habitat homes, meeting with local NGOs and government officials, and learning more about housing issues. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NICA-12-23388-EM.jpg Habitat for Humanity International | ezramillstein.com View Habitat for Humanity International by ezramillstein.com. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/SALV-14-05539-EM.jpg San Salvador, El Salvador APRIL 20, 2014 Volunteer David Treleven, from Raleigh, North Carolina, was part of a volunteer team of AmeriCorps Alumni from across the US that traveled to El Salvador to help build a new Habitat for Humanity home. ©Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NICA-12-21501-EM.jpg Masachapa, Nicaragua DECEMBER 4, 2012 66 year-old Adolfo Gutierrez has been living in this rundown shack in La Gallina for 30 years. Soon he will move into a new home, with the help of Habitat Nicaragua. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NICA-13-30442-EM.jpg San Cayetano, Nicaragua DECEMBER 4, 2013 67 year-old Adolfo Gutierrez lived in a run-down shack in the neighborhood of La Gallina for 30 years, before moving into a Habitat home in 2013. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NICA-12-23147-EM.jpg Masachapa, Nicaragua DECEMBER 10, 2012 A boy stands in front of his family's dilapidated shack. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NICA-12-22248-EM.jpg Masachapa, Nicaragua DECEMBER 5, 2012 A boy watches as Habitat for Humanity volunteers help to paint his family's new Habitat home in the community of La Gallina. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NICA-12-22485-EM.jpg Masachapa, Nicaragua DECEMBER 5, 2012 8 year-old Katia Margarita Cruz watches as a team of Habitat for Humanity volunteers help to build a new home for her family. The team spent 10 days in Nicaragua, building homes and meeting with communities, NGOs and government officials to advocate for decent housing. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/IMG_5452_1.jpg Soacha, Colombia EPTEMBER 23, 2012 Slums cover the mountainsides south of Bogotá. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HOND-09-03944-EM.jpg El Limon, Honduras MAY 12, 2009 Habitat for Humanity Honduras helped to renovate the floors of 82 year-old Catalina Ortiz's house. Most of the Chortí indigenous families of Western Honduras live in extreme poverty. Their subsistence economy keeps them from accessing credit sources, and thus from improving their houses. Their lack of resources forces them to resort to low-quality building materials, meaning that families live in substandard, overcrowded, unhealthy conditions. They are exposed to dust and extreme humidity, and the mud walls of their houses provide ideal living conditions for chinche picuda bugs, which cause Chagas Disease. Habitat for Humanity Honduras is helping to replace the Chorti’s thatched roofs with metal sheeting, to renovate and plaster crumbling walls, and to install concrete floors. With the financial support of the Gaston County Habitat affiliate in North Carolina, 113 houses have been improved, and eight new houses have been built in the villages of Carrizalón, Agua Caliente, Otuta and La Pintada. 847 people have benefited from these projects. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/SALV-10-25356-EM.jpg El Progreso, El Salvador OCTOBER 11, 2010 4 year-old Franklin Rojo stands in his family's smokey kitchen. Habitat for Humanity volunteers helped to build a new kitchen with better air circulation, which will improve thie respiratory health. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HOND-09-03735-EM.jpg Otuta, Honduras MAY 12, 2009 Moreira Dunia inside her mother's house. The floor and roof were renovated with assistance from Habitat for Humanity Honduras. Most of the Chortí indigenous families of Western Honduras live in extreme poverty. Their subsistence economy keeps them from accessing credit sources, and thus from improving their houses. Their lack of resources forces them to resort to low-quality building materials, meaning that families live in substandard, overcrowded, unhealthy conditions. They are exposed to dust and extreme humidity, and the mud walls of their houses provide ideal living conditions for chinche picuda bugs, which cause Chagas Disease. Habitat for Humanity Honduras is helping to replace the Chorti’s thatched roofs with metal sheeting, to renovate and plaster crumbling walls, and to install concrete floors. With the financial support of the Gaston County Habitat affiliate in North Carolina, 113 houses have been improved, and eight new houses have been built in the villages of Carrizalón, Agua Caliente, Otuta and La Pintada. 847 people have benefited from these projects. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/BRAZ-07-17623-EM.jpg Goiania, Brazil DECEMBER 2, 2007 Children walk through the dangerous Favela dos Trihos. Habitat for Humanity Brazil works in more than 21 cities in eight Brazilian states: Ceará, Goiás, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul and Tocantins, assisting more than 3,000 families. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/BRAZ-07-17290-EM.jpg Varjada, Brazil NOVEMBER 29, 2007 Valdenice de Oliveira sits on the porch of her Habitat home with her seven year-old son Vandeildo. Before Habitat started building concrete houses here in 2006, most homes were made of dried mud, which not only required constant patching and reshaping but also served as a breeding ground for a type of beetle that poses a serious health threat to humans. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/SALV-09-07661-EM.jpg San Vicente, El Salvador MAY 21, 2009 Four year-old Racquel Aparenga plays on a swing in front of her family's Habitat home in the Brisas del Sur community. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/SALV-09-04722-EM-retouch.jpg Santa Ana, El Salvador MAY 20, 2009 Eight month-old Felipe Salazar lives with his parents Jose (pictured) and Aida, in a home in the Charlotte Model Community, which Habitat for Humanity El Salvador started developing in June 2007. The community, which was named to honor Habitat El Salvador's primary affiliate partner in the project, will provide land, housing, basic infrastructure (water, electricity, and sewage treatment), streets with sidewalks, green areas, a daycare and community center to 60 low-income, landless families. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/SALV-09-07604-EM.jpg San Vicente, El Savador MAY 21, 2009 59 year-old Nadia Alfaro lives with her family in a Habitat home in the Brisas del Sur community. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/SALV-09-04247-EM.jpg San Salvador, El Salvador MAY 19, 2009 Elmer Sanchez (right) and his son William (left) inside their family's shack, in the rundown squatter community of Las Victorias on the outskirts of the capital. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/SALV-10-25816-EM.jpg El Progreso, El Salvador OCTOBER 11, 2010 One year-old Catherine Mellssa Vasquez plans on the floor near the door of her family's small home. Habitat volunteers helped to renovate the kitchen, inproving ventilation and ensuring better respiratory health for Catherine and her family. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HOND-09-03286-EM.jpg La Pintada, Honduras MAY 11, 2009 A young boy stands inside his family's dilapidated house. Most of the Chortí indigenous families of Western Honduras live in extreme poverty. Their subsistence economy keeps them from accessing credit sources, and thus from improving their houses. Their lack of resources forces them to resort to low-quality building materials, meaning that families live in substandard, overcrowded, unhealthy conditions. They are exposed to dust and extreme humidity, and the mud walls of their houses provide ideal living conditions for chinche picuda bugs, which cause Chagas Disease. Habitat for Humanity Honduras is helping to replace the Chorti’s thatched roofs with metal sheeting, to renovate and plaster crumbling walls, and to install concrete floors. With the financial support of the Gaston County Habitat affiliate in North Carolina, 113 houses have been improved, and eight new houses have been built in the villages of Carrizalón, Agua Caliente, Otuta and La Pintada. 847 people have benefited from these projects. ©Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/JCWP-09-30106-EM.jpg Dong Xa, Vietnam NOVEMBER 14, 2009 Wheelbarrows are lined up and ready for use in the 2009 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/DOMI-07-03878-EM.jpg Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic AUGUST 29. 2007 A young girl in front of her home in the La Lata neighborhood, on the banks of the Ozama River in Santo Domingo. The area contains more than 200 squatter houses with as many as ten people in each house. Homes are cobbled together with rusted pieces of metal, and have no plumbing. Raw sewage runs through the streets, and the neighborhood frequently floods when the river rises. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/DOMI-07-01669-EM.jpg Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic AUGUST 25, 2007 A girl sleeps in a doorway in the Zona Colonial of Santo Domingo. © Habitat for Humanity International https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/BULG-08-13692-EM.jpg Stara Zagora, Bulgaria OCTOBER 16, 2008 Two infants sleep in a dilapidated home in a Roma community. Habitat for Humanity Bulgaria provides loans to families in the area, enabling them to rehabilitate their apartments. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/SLOV-08-10626-EM.jpg Hodejov, Slovakia OCTOBER 3, 2008 Six year-old Dezika Rac stands next to his father Pater. Their home is in a Roma community in Hodejov; it is being rehabilitated thanks to a loan from Habitat for Humanity Slovakia. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra MIllstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/PHIL-09-16019-EM.jpg Manila, Philippines NOVEMBER 1, 2009 A young boy digs through sewage-filled water, searching for anything salvagable, on the Pasig River in the Paco Market neighborhood of Manila, one of the city's worst slums. The neighborhood was hit particularly hard by the slew of typhoons. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/PHIL-09-16271-EM.jpg Muntinlupa City, Philippines NOVEMBER 3, 2009 Melissa Lancanan screams for attention, as she lies in the floor of the Muntinlupa elementary school, where 357 displaced families live after typhoons destroyed their homes. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/PHIL-09-16233-EM.jpg Muntinlupa City, Philippines NOVEMBER 3, 2009 Angelica Martinez peers through the sheets that separate her family from the neighbors at the Muntinlupa elementary school, where 357 displaced families live after typhoons destroyed their homes. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/PHIL-09-15434-EM.jpg Calauan, Philippines OCTOBER 31, 2009 A boy wades through floodwater next to his house, as Typhoon Mirinae batters the Philippines. Mirinae was the fourth storm to strike the country in a month. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://ezramillstein.com/habitat-for-humanity---usa monthly 0.8 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/USOH-16-18196-EM.jpg Cincinnati, Ohio JULY 16, 2016 Water fight in the backyard. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/_T1A0646.jpg Cincinnati, Ohio JULY 16, 2016 Water fight in the backyard. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/USPA-15-18389-EM.jpg Philadelphia, Pennsylvania SEPTEMBER 12, 2015 AmeriCorps volunteer Brian Lafferty worked at the Philadelphia ReStore as part of Habitat’s inaugural Great Day of Service Interfaith Build. 10 Habitat affiliates participated in this nationwide effort, which brought together diverse faith communities in peace and service in observance of the September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/JCWP-14-25821-EM.jpg Fort Worth, Texas OCTOBER 11, 2014 President Jimmy Carter visits a Habitat for Humanity house which he helped to build, as part of the annual Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project. ©Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/USFL-14-13610-EM.jpg Jacksonville, Florida JUNE 19, 2014 Shalivia Brown, 11, explores Success Garden, a community garden in the New Town neighborhood of Jacksonville. The garden is a focal point of the New Town Success Zone, a collaboration of residents and community partners working to revitalize the neighborhood. Habitat for Humanity of Jacksonville, a Neighborhood Revitalization affiliate, is the collaboration’s housing partner. ©Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/USFL-14-11775-EM.jpg Jacksonville, Florida JUNE 18, 2014 Kayra Sylvester, 12, picks vegetables in Success Garden, a community garden in Jacksonville, Florida. The garden is a focal point of the New Town Success Zone, a collaboration of residents and community partners working to revitalize Jacksonville’s New Town neighborhood. Habitat for Humanity of Jacksonville, a Neighborhood Revitalization affiliate, is the collaboration’s housing partner. ©Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/USFL-14-12346-EM.jpg Jacksonville, Florida JUNE 18, 2014 A boy dives into a pool at a summer camp run by the Boys & Girls Club of Northeast Florida. The Boys & Girls Club is partner of the New Town Success Zone, a collaboration of residents and community groups working to revitalize Jacksonville’s New Town neighborhood. Habitat for Humanity of Jacksonville, a Neighborhood Revitalization affiliate, is the collaboration’s housing partner. ©Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/USMO-14-06691-EM.jpg Joplin, Missouri APRIL 27, 2014 Samantha Short and her two year-old son Thomas moved into a FEMA trailer after an EF-5 tornado struck Joplin on May 22, 2011. They partnered with Joplin Area Habitat for Humanity to build their own four-bedroom home in 2011. ©Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/USCO-13-15983-EM.jpg Denver, Colorado JULY 28, 2013 Sandra Padilla moved in to a Habitat for Humanity house in Denver, Colorado, in June 2006 with her two nieces, Olivia and Lilliana, and nephew, Jerome (pictured). ©Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/USCA-13-28319-EM-BW.jpg Chatsworth, California NOVEMBER 18, 2013 Byron Rodriguez, a U.S. Navy veteran, works as Office Manager at the Vet Center in Chatsworth, California. Through HFH San Fernando/Santa Clarita Valleys, the center offers art therapy for veterans dealing with post traumatic stress disorder. Rodriguez has taken the course; he also bought a condo rehabbed by Habitat. ©Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/USNY-12-14070-EM.jpg Brooklyn, New York OCTOBER 2, 2012 Ricardo Vasquez plays with his daughter Freedom (4) in their family's new condominium at St. John's Residences in Ocean Hill-Brownsville, Brooklyn. These four-story buildings with 2 and 3-bedroom condos were built on three vacant lots, which had previously been neighborhood eyesores. Partially funded by Federal NSP2 funds, they were dedicated on September 15, 2012. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/USNY-12-14024-EM.jpg Brooklyn, New York OCTOBER 2, 2012 Four year-old Freedom Vasquez explores her new bedroom in her family's new condo at St. John's Residences in Brownsville, Brooklyn. These four-story buildings with 2 and 3-bedroom condos were built on three vacant lots, which had previously been neighborhood eyesores. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/USTX-13-06006-EM.jpg Granbury, Texas MAY 17, 2013 This Habitat home was one of 58 that were damaged or destroyed when a 200 MPH F-4 tornado tore through the Rancho Brazos neighborhood on the evening of May 15th. ©Habitat for Humanity Internationa/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/USTX-13-06464-EM-RS.jpg Granbury, Texas MAY 18, 2013 Lena Noyola sat down and cried on the concrete slab which is all that remains of her home, after a 200 MPH EF4 tornado tore through the Rancho Brazos neighborhood on the evening of May 15th. This was the first time she was allowed back into the disaster zone to see the damage. ©Habitat for Humanity Internationa/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/SPEC-11-08419-EM_copy.jpg Tuscaloosa, Alabama MAY 10, 2011 Tornado damage in Rosedale Courts, a neighborhood of one-story government assistance housing in Tuscaloosa. On April 27th a historic tornado outbreak ravaged six Southern states, killing hundreds, injuring many more, flattening neighborhoods and forcing the closure of a nuclear power plant in Alabama, the hardest-hit state. It was believed to be the deadliest U.S. tornado in 37 years. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/SPEC-11-08392-EM.jpg Birmingham, Alabama MAY 10, 2011 A can of paint, used by Americorps Volunteers as they helped to rehabilitate a house, as part of the Habitat for Humanity2011 Americorps Build-A-Thon. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/USLA-13-03667-EM.jpg Slidell, Louisiana APRIL 23, 2013 Anthony Talamo plays with blocks on the floor of his family's Habitat home. Jessica Talamo and her husband, Anthony, moved their family in to their Habitat for Humanity house in Slidell, Louisiana, in January 2009. Construction began during the 2008 Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project, which included builds throughout the Gulf Coast region. Their other children are Nick, 13; Margo, 10; and Sonni-Anne, 6. ©Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/SPEC-11-08279-EM.jpg Birmingham, Alabama MAY 10, 2011 Vicky Rosenzweig, from Philadelphia, helps to rehabilitate a house as part of Habitat for Humanity's 2011 Americorps Build-A-Thon. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/SPEC-07-01278-EM.jpg Covington, Louisiana AUGUST 7, 2007 Joey Maddox and his daughter Elaine visit the construction site of their new Habitat home, where they moved in 2008. The rest of their family includes mother Kristin, seven year-old Jourdon Pierce, six year-old Jakob Tweedel, and two year-old Ella. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/SPEC-08-07325-EM.jpg Fairbanks, Alaska JUNE 15, 2008 Five year-old Acacia Johnson carefully sweeps the floor of her soon-to-be bedroom, in her family’s new Habitat house. Acacia lived with her mother Maryann and three year-old sister Amaya in a small home in Fairbanks, until they moved into this new three-bedroom Habitat home in July 2008. It keeps them warm during the long Alaskan winters. The girls have already found a way to combat the darkness of winter in the 49th state, by painting their bedrooms pink and purple. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/SPEC-10-10611-EM.jpg Jackson, Mississippi APRIL 15, 2010 Nine year-old Destiny Jackson sits at a desk in her room, doing her homework. She and her mother Deirdre Jackson, a schoolteacher, lived in New Orleans East before losing everything to Hurricane Katrina. "We had nothing to go back to," said Deirdre, who has resettled in Jackson, Mississippi, in a house built in partnership with Metro Jackson Habitat for Humanity. She shares her home in the Poindexter Park neighborhood with Destiny, her 16-year-old nephew, Patrick, and two tuxedo cats, Adam and Eve. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/SPEC-07-00879-EM.jpg Gulfport, Mississippi AUGUST 2, 2007 Diana Destry is overcome by emotion as she sits inside her nearly-completed Habitat for Humanity home. © Habitat for Humanity International https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/JCWP-10-40862-EM.jpg Wylam, Alabama OCTOBER 4, 2010 Volunteer Brian Yamaguchi, from Los Angeles, California, helps to paint the Smith family's new Habitat home on the first day of the 2010 Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project. The project improved the living conditions of 28 families in the Wylam and Fairfield communities, through a combination of new construction, rehabilitation and repairs. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/SPEC-08-08946-EM.jpg Anchorage, Alaska JUNE 20, 2008 Two native Alaskan children live in a run-down trailer park in Anchorage. Several families have moved from these mobile homes into Habitat houses. © Habitat for Humanity International https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/SPEC-08-09020-EM.jpg Anchorage, Alaska MAY 20, 2008 Angelina Lopez tends her garden in the front yard of her Habitat home. She and her daughter Janai moved into the house in 2005. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://ezramillstein.com/nepal-earthquake monthly 0.8 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-11933-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal APRIL 26, 2015 The temples in Durbar Square, the cultural center of Nepal, are in ruins, the morning after a huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, and was felt as far as India and Pakistan. A series of aftershocks continued to strike fear into residents, who were sleeping outside in streets and parks for fear of collapsing buildings. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-14640-EM.jpg Harisiddhi, Nepal MAY 2, 2015 Residents of Harisiddhi village in the Lalitpur district continue to clean up after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, and was felt as far as India and Pakistan. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-13924-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal MAY 1, 2015 2 year-old Lijeesha Shahi and her family have been sleeping under a tarp on the sidewalk since the earthquake, afraid that their home is structurally unstable. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-12873-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal APRIL 27, 2015 KATHMANDU, NEPAL (4/27/15)-Collapsed buildings line the streets of Kathmandu, two days after a massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-12889-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal APRIL 27, 2015 KATHMANDU, NEPAL (4/27/15)-A Nepali recovery team prepares to remove a dead body from a collapsed building, two days after a huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, and was felt as far as India and Pakistan. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-12959-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal APRIL 27, 2015 A Nepali recovery team works to remove a dead body from beneath a collapsed building, two days after a huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, and was felt as far as India and Pakistan. A series of aftershocks continue to strike fear into residents, who are sleeping outside in streets and parks for fear of collapsing buildings. The death toll continues to rise. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-13042-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal APRIL 27, 2015 A Nepali recovery team works to remove a dead body from beneath a collapsed building, two days after a huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, and was felt as far as India and Pakistan. A series of aftershocks continue to strike fear into residents, who are sleeping outside in streets and parks for fear of collapsing buildings. The death toll continues to rise. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-13126-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal APRIL 27, 2015 A Nepali recovery team cuts away a metal railing, as they attempt to remove a dead body from beneath a collapsed building, two days after a huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-13181-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal APRIL 27, 2015 A Nepali recovery team works to remove a dead body from beneath a collapsed building, two days after a huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, and was felt as far as India and Pakistan. A series of aftershocks continue to strike fear into residents, who are sleeping outside in streets and parks for fear of collapsing buildings. The death toll continues to rise. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-13212-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal APRIL 27, 2015 An exhausted soldier takes a break, as his team works to remove a dead body from beneath a collapsed building, two days after a huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, and was felt as far as India and Pakistan. A series of aftershocks continue to strike fear into residents, who are sleeping outside in streets and parks for fear of collapsing buildings. The death toll continues to rise. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-13259-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal APRIL 27, 2015 A Nepali recovery team works to remove a dead man from beneath a collapsed building, two days after a huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, and was felt as far as India and Pakistan. A series of aftershocks continue to strike fear into residents, who are sleeping outside in streets and parks for fear of collapsing buildings. The death toll continues to rise. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-13347-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal APRIL 27, 2015 A Nepali recovery team carries a dead body from beneath a collapsed building, two days after a huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, and was felt as far as India and Pakistan. A series of aftershocks continue to strike fear into residents, who are sleeping outside in streets and parks for fear of collapsing buildings. The death toll continues to rise. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-13386-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal APRIL 27, 2015 A Nepali recovery team removed a dead body from a collapsed building, two days after a huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, and was felt as far as India and Pakistan. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-13416-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal APRIL 27, 2015 KATHMANDU, NEPAL (4/27/15)-A Nepali woman identifies the body of her dead cousin, after he was removed from a collapsed building, two days after a huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, and was felt as far as India and Pakistan. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-13410-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal APRIL 27, 2015 A Nepali woman identifies the body of her dead cousin, after he was removed from a collapsed building, two days after a huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, and was felt as far as India and Pakistan. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-13529-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal APRIL 27, 2015 KATHMANDU, NEPAL (4/27/15)-A woman mourns the death of her sister-in-law, after a recovery team removed her from a collapsed building, two days after a huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-13491-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal APRIL 27, 2015 Family members transport the body of a Nepali man, after a recovery team removed him from a collapsed building, two days after a huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, and was felt as far as India and Pakistan. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-13571-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal APRIL 27, 2015 Bodies are cremated in the Buddhist tradition, two days after a huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, and was felt as far as India and Pakistan. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-13716-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal APRIL 27, 2015 Bodies are cremated in the Buddhist tradition, two days after a huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, and was felt as far as India and Pakistan. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/NEPA-15-13825-EM.jpg Kathmandu, Nepal APRIL 27, 2015 Family members participate in a Buddhist ceremony before cremating the bodies of a husband and wife, two days after a huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, and was felt as far as India and Pakistan. A series of aftershocks continued to strike fear into residents, who were sleeping outside in streets and parks for fear of collapsing buildings. The death toll rose to over 8,000. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://ezramillstein.com/haiti-earthquake monthly 0.8 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-04226-EM.jpg Cabaret, Haiti FEBRUARY 5, 2010 Eight year-old Jeff Cybaptiste stands in front of his family's Habitat house, which withstood the earthquake of January 12th. It is one of 183 Habitat homes in the area, which were the closest Habitat houses to the epicenter of the earthquake. Initial reports indicate that only eight of these homes sustained damage; by comparison, it is estimated that 8,000 non-Habitat homes were destroyed in the surrounding areas. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-04890-EM.jpg Port-au-Prince, Haiti FEBRUARY 6, 2010 Three weeks after the January 12th earthquake, the streets of downtown Port-au-Prince are still strewn with debris. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-04682-EM.jpg Port-au-Prince, Haiti FENRUARY 6, 2010 A young girl watches as a dead body is covered with a sheet, after being discovered decomposing in a pile of rubble three weeks after the January 12th earthquake. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-07101-EM.jpg Port-au-Prince, Haiti FEBRUARY 15, 2010 A man collects broken pieces of the pews in Haiti's National Cathedral, to use for firewood. The building was destroyed by the January 12th earthquake. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-15162-EM.jpg Léogâne, Haiti JUNE 22, 2010 35 year-old Rose Flore Charles holds her 2 year-old daughter, Guallina Delva. After the earthquake destroyed their family's home, they have been living in a makeshift shelter in Leogane that Rose cobbled together out of scraps. They are moving into a Habitat for Humanity transitional shelter this week. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-05036-EM.jpg Port-au-Prince, Haiti FEBRUARY 6, 2010 A man burns body parts among the ruins of a collapsed building, three weeks after the January 12th earthquake. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-04575-EM.jpg Port-au-Prince, Haiti FEBRUARY 6, 2010 Jean Charles Sejour searches the rubble of Haiti's Social Security office for the remains of his coworkers. He was inside when the catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck on January 12th, but ran for the door and managed to escape before the building collapsed. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-06818-EM.jpg Pétionville, Haiti FEBRUARY 12, 2010 A woman participates in a prayer vigil in the center of a tent city in Place St. Pierre, marking one month since the devastating earthquake of January 12th. The Haitian government declared February 12th-15th as days of prayer and fasting, as Haitians remember loved ones who were lost during the disaster. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-06362-EM.jpg Pétionville, Haiti FEBRUARY 12, 2010 A woman participates in a prayer vigil in the center of a tent city in Place St. Pierre, marking one month since the devastating earthquake of January 12th. The Haitian government declared February 12th-15th as days of prayer and fasting, as Haitians remember loved ones who were lost during the disaster. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-27630-EM.jpg Port-au-Prince, Haiti NOVEMBER 11, 2010 Samdi Ednan lives in Cité Soleil, an extremely impoverished and densely populated area of Port-au-Prince. Habitat for Humanity is reaching out to his community, in order to help improve housing. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-16165-EM.jpg Cap-Haïtien, Haiti JUNE 25, 2010 Puchina Valcin, 5, is the daughter of Annette Charles. Annette, 34, sought refuge in Cap-Haitien after her home in Port-au-Prince was destroyed by the January 12th earthquake. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-04931-EM.jpg Port-au-Prince, Haiti FEBRUARY 6, 2010 The sun sets behind a collapsed building, three weeks after the devastating earthquake struck Haiti. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-05703-EM.jpg Delmas, Haiti FEBRUARY 7, 2010 A man digs through the ruins of his destroyed house, on a steep hillside near Port-au-Prince. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-06029-EM.jpg Carrefour, Haiti FEBRUARY 9, 2010 Five year-old Jonas Joseph, his eight year-old sister Marie and 12 year-old brother Jeff are silhouetted against the wall of their family's makeshift shelter, in the midst of a tent city that serves as a temporary home for 350 families. The earthquake caused heavy damage to residential buildings in Carrefour; an estimated 80-90% of the buildings were destroyed. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-04857-EM.jpg Port-au-Prince, Haiti FEBRUARY 6, 2010 PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (2/6/10)-Seven year-old Wesley Paul stands in front of a collapsed building in Port-au-Prince. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-15664-EM.jpg Gonaives, Haiti MAY 24, 2010 Henry Mackolene is a neighbor and friend of Francesa Saint-Hubert. Francesa, 6, is Sabine Lorema's niece. They live together, along with five other people, in a rental home in Gonaives. Sabine used to live in the Christ-Roi neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. Her husband, a bus driver, was killed during the January 12th earthquake when a public utility company building collapsed on top of his bus, while he was parked waiting to pick up riders. Sabine is applying to partner with Habitat to build a core house. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-05817-EM.jpg Carrefour, Haiti FEBRUARY 9, 2010 Two month-old Cherize Streama sleeps soundly in the middle of a raucous tent city of 350 families. Her clavicle was fractured during the January 12th earthquake, which caused heavy damage to residential buildings in Carrefour; an estimated 80-90% of the buildings were destroyed. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-05875-EM.jpg Carrefour, Haiti FEBRUARY 9, 2010 Marie Pierre looks through the door of her makeshift shelter, in a crowded tent city of 350 families. Her right hand and leg were broken during the January 12th earthquake, which caused heavy damage to residential buildings in Carrefour; an estimated 80-90% of the buildings were destroyed. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-15937-EM.jpg Gonaives, Haiti MAY 24, 2010 Rain pours from the roof of a Habitat for Humanity transitional shelter. Habitat is building hundreds of these shelters in several Haitian cities; they last approximately two years. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-05167-EM.jpg Léogâne, Haiti FEBRUARY 7, 2010 Women wait in line for Habitat for Humanity bucket shelter kits, which were assembled by volunteers in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. 462 women received the kits, which contained a crowbar, a rope, a tarp, nails, a trowel, a handsaw, a hammer and work gloves. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-05122-EM.jpg Léogâne, Haiti FEBRUARY 7, 2010 Women wait in line for Habitat for Humanity bucket shelter kits, which were assembled by volunteers in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. 462 women received the kits, which contained a crowbar, a rope, a tarp, nails, a trowel, a handsaw, a hammer and work gloves. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-04286-EM.jpg Cabaret, Haiti FEBRUARY 5, 2010 Twelve year-old Tediphus Joseph's Habitat house withstood the earthquake of January 12th. It is one of 183 Habitat homes in the area, which were the closest Habitat houses to the epicenter of the earthquake. Initial reports indicate that only eight of these homes sustained damage; by comparison, it is estimated that 8,000 non-Habitat homes were destroyed in the surrounding areas. Nonetheless, Tediphus and his siblings now sleep in a tent in front of their home, because they are scared that another earthquake will come and "shake the house." © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HAIT-10-05447-EM.jpg Léogâne, Haiti FEBRUARY 7, 2010 A young brother and sister sit inside their family's makeshift shelter. Léogâne was among the worst affected towns by the January 12th earthquake, with an estimated 80% to 90% of buildings damaged and no remaining government infrastructure. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/JCWP-11-16952-EM.jpg Léogâne, Haiti NOVEMBER 6, 2011 Former President Jimmy Carter inspects one of the new homes built on the site of the 2011 Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project. © Habitat for Humanity International/Ezra Millstein https://ezramillstein.com/landscapes monthly 0.8 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/Untitled1.jpg Petra, Jordan AUGUST 10, 2016 Red rock canyons and starry skies over Petra. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/Petra-3_1.jpg Petra, Jordan AUGUST 10, 2016 Al Khazneh, or the Treasury, was carved out of a sandstone rock face. It is one of the most elaborate temples in Petra, and is otherworldly at night. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/IMG_8891.jpg Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates MARCH 8, 2015 Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque was constructed between 1996 to 2007. It is the largest mosque in the United Arab Emirates, covering an area of more than 12 hectares (30 acres). As the country's grand mosque, it is the key place of worship for Friday gathering and Eid prayers. It can hold more than 40,000 people. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/Riomaggiore_Panorama1_4_copy.jpg Riomaggiore, Italy JULY 28, 2014 Riomaggiore, one of the five towns of the Cinque Terre area of Italy. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/DT3V0172_1.jpg Manarola, Italy JULY 27, 2014 Manarola, one of the five towns of the Cinque Terre area of Italy. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/DT3V9682.jpg Calanque d'En Vau, France JULY 23, 2014 Calanque d'En Vau is part of the Massif des Calanques in the Bouches-du-Rhône département of France. This range extends for 20 km along the coast between Marseille and Cassis. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/DT3V9534.jpg Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain JULY 2014 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/IMG_9675.jpg Chaminuka Reserve, Lusaka, Zambia AUGUST 2, 2014 Zebras run next to the Chaminuka River. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/EzraMillstein_Bantayan.jpg Bantayan Island, Philippines FEBRUARY 22, 2015 A solitary starfish crosses a sand dune in the purple waters off Bantayan Island. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/DT3V9466.jpg San Francisco, California JUNE 28, 2014 Traffic flows over the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco provides families with a springboard to secure, stable futures through affordable homeownership, financial literacy and neighborhood revitalization. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/IMG_2632.jpg Olympic National Park, Washington State MAY 26, 2013 A storm at Rialto Beach. https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/IMG_0012.jpg Olympic National Park, Washington State MAY 26, 2013 A storm at Rialto Beach. https://ezramillstein.com/publications monthly 0.8 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/2020-calendar-cover.jpg Mercy Corps Calendar 2020 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/15459802014AnnualReport-1.jpg Annual Report, Habitat for Humanity International NOVEMBER 2015 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/annual-report-2015-2-2.jpg Annual Report, Habitat for Humanity International NOVEMBER 2015 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/annual-report-2015-2-6.jpg Annual Report, Habitat for Humanity International NOVEMBER 2015 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/annual-report-2015-2-34.jpg Annual Report, Habitat for Humanity International NOVEMBER 2015 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HW_SEPT_15_FINAL_3-1.jpg Habitat World EPTEMBER 2015 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HW_SEPT_15_FINAL_3-22.jpg Habitat World EPTEMBER 2015 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/1543792_PRI_2016Calendar_DM_CAL-14.jpg Habitat for Humanity International Calendar 2016 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/1543792_PRI_2016Calendar_DM_CAL-18.jpg Habitat for Humanity International Calendar 2016 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/1543792_PRI_2016Calendar_DM_CAL-22.jpg Habitat for Humanity International Calendar 2016 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/1543792_PRI_2016Calendar_DM_CAL-24.jpg Habitat for Humanity International Calendar 2016 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/1543792_PRI_2016Calendar_DM_CAL-26.jpg Habitat for Humanity International Calendar 2016 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/annual-report-2014-4.jpg Annual Report, Habitat for Humanity International NOVEMBER 2014 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/annual-report-2014-12.jpg Annual Report, Habitat for Humanity International NOVEMBER 2014 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/annual-report-2014-13.jpg Annual Report, Habitat for Humanity International NOVEMBER 2014 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/annual-report-2014-14.jpg Annual Report, Habitat for Humanity International NOVEMBER 2014 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HFHI_HW_MAY14_Fp-1.jpg Habitat World MAY 2014 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HFHI_HW_MAY14_Fp-4.jpg Habitat World MAY 2014 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HFHI_HW_MAY14_Fp-10.jpg Habitat World MAY 2014 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/HFHI_HW_MAY14_Fp-31.jpg Habitat World MAY 2014 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Advocacy Working Group Photo Exhibit Catalog MARCH 2011 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/Haiti_Photo_Exhibit_Catalog-2.jpg Haiti Advocacy Working Group Photo Exhibit Catalog MARCH 2011 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/aTimes.jpg The New York Times FEBRUARY 20, 2011 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/abTimes_p1a2102.jpg International Herald Tribune FEBRUARY 21, 2011 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/areport.jpg Annual Report, Habitat for Humanity International JANUARY 2011 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/10_23667_IR_2011_CALENDAR_4.jpg Habitat for Humanity International Calendar 2011 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/10_23667_IR_2011_CALENDAR_7.jpg Habitat for Humanity International Calendar 2011 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/10_23667_IR_2011_CALENDAR_11.jpg Habitat for Humanity International Calendar 2011 https://cdn.neonsky.app/4bd5ebf25d986/images/10_23667_IR_2011_CALENDAR_12.jpg Habitat for Humanity 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