The
Kenyan government has declared a national state of emergency as several million
people face food shortages. Drought conditions across the country have crippled
the production of corn in a farming industry that has already been weakened by
post-election violence, which drove many farmers from their crops and into
cities and refugee camps.
I
spent the past week in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kakuma in northwestern Kenya
photographing the conditions there. Child refugees from regions such as Sudan,
Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo are the hardest hit by the famine,
with local Kenyan populations also struggling to survive.
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A mother holds her severely malnourished child in Kakuma Main Hospital
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A malnourished girl in Kakuma Main Hospital.
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A camel is slaughtered in an open field in order to help the refugees supplement their nutritional needs.
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The blood of a slaughtered camel drains into the dirt. Camel and goat meat help the refugees (who are able to afford it) fend off malnutrition.
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A blade of grass pops out of the dry, cracked earth the day after the region's first rainstorm in many months.
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Refugees stand in front of a shop that breaks down bags of rice into small, daily rations for the residents of the camp.
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Women scramble to get food vouchers which will allow them to get larger amounts of food for their families. Refugees often ration their children's food between the whole family, causing severe malnutrition in the child. This program provides women with already malnourished children enough food for their whole family.
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A malnourished child is placed in a weighing harness by medical clinic staff.
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A child cries as he is measured.
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A mother holds her child in a feeding center.
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A mother holds up her severely malnourished child in Kakuma Main Hospital. The child is so weak from hunger he is unable to hold his head up on his own.
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Children's feeding charts rest on a table next to a measuring device in a medical clinic.
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A mother looks out of window of a feeding center as she waits to have her child weighed, measured and treated for malnutrition.
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A makeshift, outdoor church in the refugee camp.
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A malnourished child in the main hospital.
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A boy crying outside of a feeding center.
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Workers process food aid in a feeding center's warehouse.
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Women mix oil and grains together in a feeding center.
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Oil cans from USAID form the roofs of many refugee homes in the camp.
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A refugee is reflected in a puddle of mud after the region's first rain storm in many months.
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These pictures stories are simply heart wrenching. Thank you for your bravery in bringing them to us. Stay safe.
Posted by: Sha Clark Doan | February 08, 2009 at 01:41
The work you do is amazing and the photos are just jaw dropping. I hope that your images move enough people to make a difference in the world and one day bring peace. I hope you are the one that takes the photo that "stops/ends" the war. Thank you for your bravery and passion for the craft of photography. ---Kendo
Posted by: Kendo | February 16, 2009 at 19:08
I found Children are always the first victims in Starvation after war. I just cant see their eyes and wrinkled skin on his stomach. I had found up to four million people would be at risk if the security situation did not improve enough to deliver food supplies at the right time.
Posted by: jeux psp | October 26, 2009 at 09:03
in a world in there some governments spend millions in war, meanwhile in others make the war and die in total poverty like this, you know there something that looks like to me so funny, is that we called ourselves the supreme race, please we are worst than animals.
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