First Person: Voices, video, and photos from Oxfam's fight against poverty

John Ekono Ekiman is a herder who lost most of his animals to drought. He received four camels and 20 goats as part of Oxfam's restocking program. "I feel really proud of having them," he said of his animals. "In the future I want to expand and grow my camels and goats." Photo: Alejandro Chaskielberg

Judging from the comments on our Facebook wall, many of you liked the stunning new photos taken in Turkana, Kenya, by Alejandro Chaskielberg. The acclaimed Argentinian art photographer traveled to the region with Oxfam to take portraits of people affected by the recent East Africa drought and food crisis. Last week the photos were featured in a slideshow on BBC News, raising awareness of both the crisis and Oxfam’s ongoing response.

In most of the photos, Chaskielberg used his trademark technique of shooting by moonlight, illuminating these scenes of herders and their families with a dramatic, unearthly glow. The results are memorable (and newsworthy) because they’re so distinctive.

However, when we saw how the photos came out, some of my Oxfam colleagues loved them, but others gave them mixed reviews.

Women tend gardens they built with support from an Oxfam project, which aims to help mothers improve nutrition for their children while also earning an income by selling extra vegetables. Photo: Alejandro Chaskielberg

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Oxfam America CHANGE Leader Paul Gallegos recently traveled around the eastern US with the Reverb Campus Consciousness Tour, which aims to “inspire and activate students in an electric atmosphere while leaving a positive impact on each community the tour visits.”  This particular tour featured international sensation Janelle Monae and indie-popsters fun. Check out some of Paul’s highlights and his comments below:

Photo: Bob Ferguson/Oxfam America

At Cornell University, above, our second stop on the tour, about 200 people signed our petition asking Congress not to cut life-saving aid.

Photo: Josh Glasheen/Reverb

Our table was never short on information to give to inquisitive students, like these two new Oxfam supporters at the University of Maine.

Photo: Pretty Polly Productions

Janelle Monae took time out of her hectic post-show schedule to meet with a couple of Oxfam volunteers during our tour stop at Dickinson College.

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The UN announced on Labor Day that famine conditions have now spread to six areas of Somalia, affecting 750,000 people—more than double the number in July when famine was first declared. Several hundred Somali refugees cross the border into Ethiopia every day; many of  them have walked for three to four weeks across the desert with very little food and water. They seek shelter in places like Dollo Ado, in Ethiopia’s southern Somali region, where Oxfam has been providing water and sanitation facilities for an estimated 11,000 people in Hilaweyn refugee camp.

11,000 people–that’s a lot of water. And a lot of lives depending on it. So what exactly does the relief effort look like? Check out Jane Beesley’s photos, below:

A worker loads Oxfam equipment onto a truck for transport to Hilaweyn camp. Photo: Jane Beesley/Oxfam

Shortly before Hilaweyn camp opened, Oxfam workers assembled a water tank called the “T70,” which holds 70,000 liters of clean water. Photo: Jane Beesley/Oxfam

Oxfam staffer Enthemanche Chane hands out clean water to people as they arrive at the camp after a long bus journey. Photo: Jane Beesley/Oxfam

Oxfam aims to reach more than 3 million people  throughout East Africa with a variety of support, including food aid, clean water, and veterinary care for animals. We are drilling and repairing wells and distributing fuel vouchers to ensure that pumps on the wells can keep operating—even if people have no money. We are also campaigning to change the root causes of this crisis. Find out how you can support our efforts.

Akiru Lotege. Photo: Rankin / Oxfam

A severe food crisis and drought is now affecting millions of people in East Africa. Among the areas hit hardest is northern Kenya’s Turkana region, where many people are herders who depend on their animals—camels, cows, goats, and sheep—for both food and income.

In March 2011, the photographer Rankin visited Turkana to capture photos and stories of people affected by the ongoing crisis. Among them was Akiru Lotege, 33. Lotege, whose husband passed away in 1999, said she sometimes finds work as a day laborer but doesn’t earn enough to pay for both food and schooling for her kids. With regard to aid, “we appreciate the food, but what we really need is work,” she said. “We need to feed ourselves.”

The following is an excerpt from Lotege’s account of the challenges she faces as a mother and widow, raising her children in a time of hardship:

 “Sometimes I dream about my husband and my husband’s mother. They loved me so much. I miss them terribly. Sometimes I dream that they come to me. When my husband comes to me in my dreams he looks around and sees the state we are living in. He sees that his children are hungry and it breaks his heart. He doesn’t speak in my dream but I can see how he is feeling by looking in his sad eyes. He stays for a while and then he realizes that there is nothing he can do and he just walks way.

“ When he was alive he would never allow them to go to bed hungry. He loved those children. He would always come home with food. He would do anything to make sure we had enough to eat. Always. I miss him so much. So much.

“Things were different when he was alive. This place was so different. We had plenty of cows, sheep, goats, and camels. There was never any problem getting food. We didn’t know what hunger was like. We could eat whatever we wanted. There was grass everywhere. This dry land was green. Not dusty like this.

“Most of the women here are widows. We are all caring for children alone. Some of the children here should be in college or even at university but we don’t have the money we need so that they can proceed. We have given them a basic education but it’s hard for them to go on. The challenge we have is schooling our children to ensure we can have a better tomorrow.”

 Oxfam aims to reach 3 million people–1.3 million in Kenya, 700,000 in Ethiopia, and 500,000 in Somalia—with a variety of support, including food aid, clean water, and veterinary care for animals. We are drilling and repairing wells and distributing fuel vouchers to ensure that pumps on the wells can keep operating—even if people have no money. Find out how you can support our efforts.

Jeff Deutsch is the manager of Oxfam America’s design and production team. Part of his job is to pay close attention to the images Oxfam uses to portray its work, often relying on pictures shot by others. On a recent field visit to West Africa, he photographed some of that work himself.

Trained as a graphic designer, Deutsch talks about what he captured with his camera—and why. In this third and last audio and photo blog, the familiar becomes strange and he finds beauty at every turn:

Watch Part I.

Watch Part II.

Jeff Deutsch is the manager of Oxfam America’s design and production team. Part of his job is to pay close attention to the images Oxfam uses to portray its work, often relying on pictures shot by others. On a recent field visit to West Africa, he photographed some of that work himself.

Trained as a graphic designer, Deutsch talks about what he captured with his camera. In this second audio and photo blog, he visits some of the communities in Ghana affected by large mining operations, and meets local people who are speaking out about it:

Watch part I.

Jeff Deutsch is the manager of Oxfam America’s design and production team. Part of his job is to pay close attention to the images Oxfam uses to portray its work, often relying on pictures shot by others. On a recent field visit to West Africa, he photographed some of that work himself.

Trained as a graphic designer, Deutsch talks about what he captured with his camera. In the first of three audio and photo blogs, he visits Senegal, where water still covered large parts of the city of Pikine six months after a flood hit:

Watch part II.