The above video was shot in Kibera, which is known for being East Africa’s largest slum. I had to keep well on my toes while shooting here, as the neighborhood can be dicey. We hired guides and watchmen to look out for us and to help control the curious crowds. There’s a bit of male-bashing in this piece, but it appears to be well-deserved. For anyone looking to begin a new NGO in Kenya, may I suggest addressing absentee fathers and the break-up of the family.

On the whole, women in Sub-Saharan Africa face more challenges than men. Care for Kenya works with women in Kibera and Kisumu, most of whom are HIV positive, to empower them both socially and economically. Through this two-pronged approach women experience better livelihoods and stronger families.

I have to hand it to David Levis, ChildFund‘s Facebook Experience of A Lifetime winner. David, a high school teacher from California, recently traveled to Uganda to visit five of the fourteen children he and his family sponsor. Yes, that’s right. Fourteen. David, his wife, and their three children make a lot of sacrifices in order to sponsor these children. The above video chronicles his thoughts and experiences during his week-long journey to Uganda.

Sit long enough in any given location in Africa and if it’s not already, music will start playing. Music is always an integral part of my videos, and the ubiquitous presence of song and dance in Africa makes it easy to incorporate in my work. Soundtracks for both of these videos were recorded during the course of each assignment.

There’s Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle-East, and then there’s Ethiopia. There’s no other place on Earth quite like it. While it’s true that many other cultures also have their own alphabet and cuisine, Ethiopia’s customs and traditions are unique unto themselves. Ethiopia remains the only country in Africa that was never colonized, not to say that people didn’t try. The advent of Orthodox Christianity here in the fourth century created an ancient bastion of Christendom that in many respects remains unchanged until this day.

Ethiopia is culturally rich, but materially poor, and a journey here can be both uplifting and exhausting. I’ve recently spent a week here covering some the work of the International Orthodox Christian Charities. While IOCC has a number of diverse programs in the country, including agriculture and vocational training, the photographs shown here highlight their work with the disabled and infirm.

Podoconiosis, also known as Elephantiasis, is a problem throughout Africa, but especially so in Ethiopia. Here, red soils are high in alkali metals such potassium and sodium. These interact with bare skin and over time cause the swelling of tissue in the feet and legs.

In 2011, podoconiosis was added to the World Health Organization’s Neglected Tropical Disease list. The Ethiopian Ministry of Health followed up by making total elimination of the disease part of its strategic plan. Prevention methods for Podoconiosis are very simple: wear shoes and wash your feet regularly. Treatment can be almost as simple, provided that the disease is not too far advanced, but it takes time.

IOCC currently has six treatment facilities for podoconiosis in the country. Patients attend daily for two weeks and practice a routine of washing and soaking their feet in a mild bleach solution. At the end of the two weeks they’re fitted with special orthopedic shoes and continue to practice the washing routine at home until symptoms have disappeared. This usually takes between six months to one year depending on the severity of the disease. Patients’ feet are also measured regularly in order to monitor improvement. When a patient’s feet are not soaking, bandages are worn on the feet and legs at all times.

When patients are affected with podo, as it is known, they are unable to work, and they along with their families sink deeper into poverty. They also may face stigma from neighbors or family, who are unaware of the causes and think the victim may be cursed. Up until even the last decade, amputation was practiced as a solution because causes and treatment methods were unknown to health professionals. Some victims, fearing amputation, are still reluctant to seek treatment today.

Click above to view a few brief clips of the IOCC‘s Podoconiosis treatment clinic in Debre Markos, Amhara Region. Below, workers make shoes for podoconiosis patients at a workshop near the clinic in Debre Markos.

Above, a worker constructs a wheelchair at a workshop in Addis Ababa. IOCC also provides wheelchairs for disabled children living at the Cheshire Services‘s home outside Addis. Most organizations donating wheelchairs would likely have them imported. IOCC has them constructed in-country to support the local job market and allow people to learn new skills, all while helping those who wouldn’t otherwise have access to wheelchairs.

To be disabled in the developing world is an uphill-both-ways challenge. Most disabled children in Ethiopia are forced to stay home from school and remain at home for much of their lives. Above and below, children race down a corridor at the Cheshire Services home in Addis Ababa, where they live and play together and receive vital education and medical care.

During my time in Addis I also got a chance to interview His Holiness Abuna Paulos, Patriarch and Catholicos of Ethiopia, shown below. He is the Princeton-educated head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church who spent several years in prison under Ethiopia’s oppressive communist rule. During his tenure, the Patriarch has drastically stepped up development and relief efforts of the Church, which works closely with IOCC. He was a generous man who gladly shot the breeze with our crew at his offices while we waited for the delivery of the tripod I’d left behind.

The trek to the watering hole is long; for some families 20km for the return journey. The load is back-breaking. Because the water itself brings disease and can be deadly, ChildFund New Zealand recently began a campaign to bring safe water to Emali, a district in South-Central Kenya. On this assignment I accompanied several families in Emali on their daily rounds to collect water, walking kilometers on end with them while toting my camera instead of a jerry can. I definitely had the easier task. Click on any of these photographs for a bigger view.

It’s rare to see such a populated area like Emali District, only three hours from Nairobi, without access to safe water sources. The land appears lush and green thanks to the recent seasonal rainfalls. Yet families here spend most of their daylight hours walking to and from the sandy pits where they have dug far enough to tap ground water. The sand acts as a natural filter, straining out some of the mud and sediment, but not the deadly bacteria. “At times I lose hope because I know that these diseases are caused by lack of safe water… but we don’t have any alternative but to drink the water,” said one mother, Angeline Okirot.

The lack of water seems to affect every aspect of daily life here. Without clean water residents cannot cook or wash their clothes. People find it hard to earn income because most of their time is spent finding water. Recent development studies have shown that providing clean access to water is one of the most transformative things an NGO can bring to a community. “I cannot remember a day when I had free time to rest. When I come from the spring I also take water to the school… We contribute water to the school as a community in exchange for the meals our children take there. After coming from the school I go to the forest to fetch firewood to cook for the family,” says Mrs. Okirot.

Most families here earn any income they might have as hired day laborers, performing tasks such as fencing or farming. Some industrious people in the district have begun making a business out of trekking to and from the watering holes, asking a small fee for their water delivery services. However, most people are unable to afford to pay for this convenience.

Children also miss out on school here in order to help their parents fetch water, which can take six or seven hours in a single day. As a result, most children only attend school two or three days a week. Wells and springs are almost non-existent here, but that will soon change provided that ChildFund NZ can raise enough funds to install community wells in the area.

Hopefully the next time I come back to Emali, it will be to document the improvements that have been brought to families’ lives as a result of having access to safe water.

The Teso tribe of East Africa numbers about 3.5 million people, most of whom live in NE Uganda. After Kampala, Tesoland was the first place I visited in the country. Nearly three years later I still hold it in my heart as one of the most special places in the world. Centuries old traditions remain firmly engrained in the culture here.  While that’s not unique among tribes in Africa, rarely are they so welcoming to outsiders as the Teso.  Take, for instance, their nearby cousins, Kenya’s Turkana.  During colonial times even Great Britain dared not enter their tribal lands.  The colonial power shut off the Turkana Region and required a special pass of any outsider wishing to visit.

Above, villagers enjoy beer and peanuts at the local bar. The local brew, shared from a communal clay pot, is concocted from millet and sucked through long straws made from reeds.  In the past twenty years, the Teso have endured much hardship: two armed rebellions (including Joseph Kony and the LRA’s infamous 2003 incursion), floods, drought, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and cattle raids from the neighboring Karamojong tribe. However, you wouldn’t know it if you were to travel here. The Teso remain resolute and joyful.  It’s all water under the bridge.

Watch the above video about a private primary and vocational school in Amuria, in the heart of Tesoland. Living Hope Education Center currently educates over 300 pupils, many from extremely disadvantaged backgrounds. When I’m not out shooting, I sit on Living Hope’s advisory board. We’re currently getting ready to begin a volunteer-teacher program at the school. For those willing to make the step out here, shoot me an email. The musical performance for this piece was captured at the Teso Traditional Music Competition in Amuria.

In 2008, Population Services International received funding from the SALIN initiative, under the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to support the Malian Ministry of Health in their effort to increase the contraceptive prevalence rate in the country. PSI began expanding its existing family planning program to include promotion and delivery of long-acting, reversible contraceptives, such as intrauterine devices and hormonal implants, in Bamako’s public health centers.

Once Mariam heard that the public health clinic in her neighborhood was offering long-term methods of family planning for free, she decided to use the implant. With SALIN funding, PSI has been able to reach nearly 5,000 women like Mariam with long-term methods of contraception since 2008.

I’ve just completed nine days in Sri Lanka with ChildFund documenting recovery efforts in rural areas. Schools and community centers were severely damaged during the civil war. ChildFund is building newer, better centers with the help of the local community on the ground. Throughout this, the organization’s educational, nutritional, and growth-monitoring programs continue. They are ever so important here among a population that has been devastated by upheaval. Despite this, Sri Lanka was perhaps the warmest and friendliest place I’ve been in some time, to which these photos will attest. The majority of meals I ate were in homes rather than at my hotel.

I shot two videos spots during the week, the first of which is about Dilshan, whose family struggled to keep him in school until ChildFund’s agricultural programs stepped in. The spot will air on cable television in the US, and I have to keep it hidden until after it does. Below Dilshan harvests brinjals, one of Sri Lanka’s many exotic vegetables. It’s like a tart eggplant, but with a firmer texture. I’m certainly going to miss the great variety of food here.

Below is the second video I shot, and have just put the finishing touches on. It focuses on ChildFund’s reconstruction of Early Childhood Care and Development centers, or ECCDs, which are a launching point of ChildFund’s programs in the community.

Below, ECCD coordinator Chamila Krishanti talks to parents at a home-based ECCD, wherein adults learn about activities to stimulate their young children’s minds at home, and about proper nutrition and diet for their families.

If you count the video below, I shot three in total. Officially, Sri Lanka drives on the left-hand side of the road, though this is more of a guideline than a rule. Several times I thought I could be filming the last moments of my life. Without a freeway system, Sri Lanka’s roads cut through populated areas and make for a few close calls.

Not many of us can claim to have saved 100,000 lives. I recently spent a week in Rwanda photographing jointly for the Gates Foundation and the Global Fund, two of the greatest change-makers in global health today. The Gates Foundation is a major contributor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. Together they save an estimated 100,000 lives each month. Above, a child receives a polio vaccine in a public health center in Kabuga, Rwanda.

While health care is a controversial issue across the world, especially in US politics, we in the West might view it differently if were we dealing with the same epidemics people face in places like Sub-Saharan Africa. Here, UN, PEPFAR or Global Fund-supported public health centers are the primary means for accessing care for diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV. Treatment for such diseases would be far out of reach for most individuals were it not for donor agencies.

Above, community health care worker Angelique Uzamukunda (r) measures the diameter of four year old Elie’s arm with the help of his mother in order to monitor his nutrition levels. Angelique, also shown below walking along a roadside in the town of Rumyongza, monitors members of her community for signs of HIV, TB, malnutrition, and malaria, and makes referrals to local health centers when needed.

Prevention programs are also part of the Global Fund‘s strategy. Research shows a 60% decline in transmission of HIV from female to male after circumcision. The procedure is now in high demand since the Rwandan Ministry of Health has been offering it for free every Saturday. Below, Dr. Semana Cyrille talks with young men as they queue for circumcision operations at Kibagabaga Hospital in Kigali.

I’ve been in Africa long enough to remember a time when anti-retroviral therapy (ARV) was not available. As a volunteer at an orphanage in 2002, I recall one three-year old child dying on the first week of my arrival there. I’m hopeful that these days are in the past.

Above, Nutritionist Claudette Kayitesi counsels François Iyamuremye as he receives his monthly anti-retroviral medication at a clinic in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali. Nearly 100,000 people (seems to be a magic number) are supported with essential ARV medication by the Global Fund in Rwanda alone. Proper adherence to treatment and diet are an essential part of the ARV regimen. The medication is never unaccompanied by counseling.

Our team documented François and his family’s life for two days while in Rwanda. Both he and his wife are HIV positive. François also leads a class of HIV victims where he discusses adherence to the medication and ways patients can deal with stigma surrounding the virus in their communities.

3.3 million people are currently receiving ARV treatment through the Global Fund. Following the global financial crises, contributions to the fund from donor governments have been down. Isolationist rhetoric coming from some US presidential candidates is also troubling. Perhaps we should keep in mind that not all interference in the affairs of other nations need be for strategic political gain.

François’ wife Jacqueline, shown above, together with her husband, was diagnosed with HIV before the birth of their last child, Thierry. Shown below on right, with his sister Lyzette, Thierry’s status is negative thanks to Global Fund-supported Rwandan government programs. Jacqueline is determined for her children to remain HIV negative throughout their lifetimes and has begun to educate them about the disease even at their early age.