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

For one thing, as Chaskielberg explains, the moonlight photography technique requires subjects to hold their poses for extended periods of time. Because of this, some of the people in the photos look stiff and detached, standing motionless like wax figures in a museum. Maybe that’s not a problem in itself, but neither is it completely in line with the way Oxfam strives to portray people living in poverty—as active, empowered agents of change, rather than passive objects of our regard. When people don’t seem to move or act as we do, some of the human connection between viewer and subject gets lost, resulting in images that risk “exoticizing” the people portrayed.

Second, some felt the pictures were a bit too beautiful, given the situation. Is it OK to photograph families who have lost nearly everything, in the midst of the world’s biggest crises, looking like they’re part of a glossy spread in a fashion magazine? Does the artist’s technique—so much a part of these images—enhance the subject matter, or does it obscure it?

"I appreciate pastoralism but animals are not sustainable anymore," said Elisabeth Ekatapan, a widow bringing up eight children. "If I could make one thing happen it would be to have my own business and earn money." Photo: Alejandro Chaskielberg

The latter is a tough question to answer, and one that Chaskielberg himself identified as his “main challenge” in his interview with the BBC. “I would like to break with the idea that a beautiful picture of a hurtful situation detracts from its message or documentary value,” he said. “My intention is to highlight a hopeful vision of the present, showing people’s strength and to inspire the viewer that a change is possible.”

So what do you think? Did he succeed? Or is there such a thing as a photo that’s just too beautiful?

Oxfam Ambassador Scarlett Johansson talks to Paulina Natir, Turkana, Northern Kenya. Photo: Andy Hall/Oxfam

Right now, Oxfam is providing water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities to more than 45,000 people in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp—the largest in the world, and home to tens of thousands of Somali refugees fleeing famine in their home country. More people stream in to the camp each week, seeking refuge from other overcrowded camps and the unsafe areas on the camp’s outskirts.

“The scale of poverty in Dadaab is overwhelming,” said Oxfam Ambassador Scarlett Johansson, who visited the camp with Oxfam and is documenting her experiences for CNN and the Huffington Post. “I met countless women like Hawa, a local community leader, who lamented the seemingly endless struggle of the Somali people, as refugees of war and starvation and now left to suffer everyday life with the very barest of essentials.”

Johansson also visited the Turkana region of northern Kenya, where herding communities suffer from chronic droughts that have destroyed their lives and livelihoods. One herder, Sabina Loliyak, told an Oxfam staffer: “If there is no water, then there is no life.” A mother of young children, Loliyak lost half of her animals to the current drought and struggled to feed her kids. “We used to get nutritious food drinking milk and eating meat from [our] livestock, but right now there is nothing. Even the trees have dried up.” 

Sabina Loliyak, left, with her daughter. Photo: Caroline Gluck/Oxfam

In Turkana, Oxfam is scaling up our cash and food-transfer programs to support more than 250,000 people. For Loliyak, participation in an emergency cash transfer program means she can purchase more nutritious food for her children, as well as possibly make the transition from herder to small business owner. “If we can start a business, then our life will change automatically,” she said. “Cash will help us to start a new life.”

Maybe it’s that kind of determination to create a better future—even in a time of crisis—that motivates Johansson, Halima Hussein, and countless others to do their part.

 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.

Oxfam aims to reach 3 million people 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.

Abdullah Ahmed Ali, 59, helps construct latrines. Photo by Oxfam.

Guest blog: Janna Hamilton, Media Coordinator for Oxfam, is reporting from the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. Oxfam is hiring camp residents to help build latrines and other work, which is helping provide services to more refugees and enabling workers earn a little money.

Abdullah Ahmed Ali, 59, has worked with Oxfam for four days, helping to construct latrines in the Ifo extension camp, part of the rapidly expanding Dadaab camp in eastern Kenya. More than 200 families are relocating to Ifo extension each day. Oxfam is scaling up its operations in order to meet the increasing demands for access to safe water and sanitation to prevent the spread of disease.

Cash-for-work initiatives offer the refugee community an opportunity to earn an income. It also helps reinforce some dignity for the workers, knowing they are helping to provide for their family. Men and women are paid between 250 and 500 Kenyan shillings (about $2.70 to $5.40) per day depending on their skill levels. Jobs for men include constructing latrines, reporting on dead livestock so they can be removed before spreading disease, and clearing new land for relocated families. Oxfam has employed women to help collect and dispose of the piles of packaging discarded from newly erected tents and materials.

Abdullah says the money he earns from Oxfam helps him to buy more food for his family of nine.

“In the camp we don’t get any sugar or vegetables, so the income I gain will be spent on buying more variety of food for my family.

“Without this job I would just be wandering around looking for any work.”

Tede Lokapelo holds a day's worth of food. Photo by Rankin

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. In the excerpt below, Tede Lokapelo, 85, talks about the dramatic changes he has witnessed in his lifetime.

“We are poor because the season is always dry. Everything dies, every day, every day, every day. For me the world has changed for the worse. We are living with a lot of uncertainties—no water, no food.

“It used to rain even when the grass was still green. It was never dry like this. Now maybe it rains for a few minutes or a few hours, but the earth is too dry nothing can be absorbed. This kind of drizzly rain is useless. If you look at the ground it is not even wet. You can tell whether the rain will be good or bad by looking at those mountains. You see that kind of smoke or fog? That is a symbol of the dry season. That fog needs to clear before the big rain clouds can come, then the skies can open and it will rain like it used to for days. It used to rain so that floods and rivers appear. But that will not happen until that fog disappears.

“In this community there are people called rain makers. In the past, when we had a prolonged drought, all the men would go and see the rain maker. We would sit under a special tree in the mountains and pray for rain. But God seems to have become too far away, and these traditions don’t work anymore.

“Back then we had everything, even wild animals were everywhere. There were antelopes, ostriches, wild cats, even lions, elephants, buffalo, leopards, everything. The last time I saw a lion it was 1971. By 1971 we could not see any animals here. The antelope remained around for a while but by 1988 the antelopes also started dying. The wild animals found no grass here, just dust. There was no shade for them. They began slowly dying of hunger. Those that could walk began walking away. They went to places where they could find shade and water.

“I miss those animals very much. The environment is not complete without them.

“ [Today] I only have seven goats left. I used to have 200. … This drought has taught me a lesson. I have learned that it is too difficult to keep animals. Our strong dependence on livestock, our old way of life, has completely gone.”

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.

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.

Kristin Davis meets Madina Farah Yusuf at Dadaab in Kenya.

As conflict and drought continue to ravage Somalia, the world’s largest refugee camp keeps growing—by more than 1,000 people a day. Dadaab, in Kenya, is teeming with 380,000 people, four times the number the camp was designed for.

And more are on their way.

East Africa—particularly the triangle between south and central Somalia, northern Kenya, and southern Ethiopia—is now in the grip of a serious drought and food crisis that is affecting more than 10 million people.

Oxfam Ambassador Kristin Davis, star of Sex and the City, just visited Dadaab to help draw the world’s attention to the drought and what countless refugee families are enduring.  One of the women she met there was Madina Farah Yusuf, who walked for 10 days with her seven children to reach the camp. On the way, Yusuf came across four other children whose parents had died of starvation. She took them in and guided them to Dadaab, where they are all now taking shelter together under a tree.

“We left Somalia in fear for our lives: There was so much hunger and war,” Yusuf told Davis, before recounting her harrowing journey to Dadaab and the hardships that continue. “Bandits robbed us of our food and clothes on the way. It gets very cold at night, and the children cry. We only have one blanket. It is also unprotected out in the open. I worry that hyenas will attack the children.”

At the camp, basics are in short supply.

“We drank some tea this morning,” Yusuf continued. “But we have very little food. The rations are not enough for everyone to eat every day.”

An Oxfam pump a few hundred feet away is providing her family with water, but many people still need shelter and toilets.

Oxfam is responding to the drought and food crisis with water, sanitation services, and food. Our goal is to reach 3 million people. Your support can help us get there.

Emily Gertz is a freelance journalist, editor, and blogger covering the environment, technology, science, and sustainability. She reported on the Copenhagen climate talks on behalf of Oxfam America.

Today Danish artists Soren Nielsen, Morten Moller and Mikael Plougstrup Nielsen have been sculpting two huge statues of two Maasai warriors — a  man and a woman holding a baby — out of ice just outside the Bella Center (the venue of the climate talks). The statues, carved on behalf of Oxfam, will melt away over the next two days, just in time for the end of the first week of international climate treaty negotiations.

The process is meant to symbolize the precarious situation of the Maasai tribes of Kenya, which are being hit hard by changes to the climate. One of the worst droughts in living memory has devastated the Maasai’s herds of cattle, and their livelihoods.

Each ice block is about 3 feet (or 1 meter exactly) tall and wide, and come from a river in Sweden. After being stacked three blocks high, the sculptors set to work with chainsaws and enormous chisel-like tools, expecting the entire process to take about 12 hours.

The process might go on a bit longer, however, because the pounding and roaring of the saws and tools was leaking through to meetings underway inside the conference center, forcing the staff to halt the artistic proceedings.

Eventually a compromise was worked out, and the carvers have been able to set to work periodically (presumably when the nearest rooms were not being used).