humanitarian work

The week I spent in Honduras is, I hope, the first of many incredible opportunities to see firsthand the impact that non-profits have on the populations they work with. I was there for a week in November 2007 for a pro bono collaboration between the Virginia Hospital Center Medical Brigade and my daytime job. In addition to managing the entire project (strategic planning etc) my job was to conceptualise and manage the development of the Brigade's first ever website. All the photos on the site designated as Booz Allen Hamilton were also taken by yours truly.

Although I grew up in a third world country, I have never seen as much abject poverty as I did over there. I witnessed and experienced so many incredible things - a 44-lb tumor extracted from a woman's pelvis, an emergency c-section, trekking up a slippery mountain side through coffee plantations... and met a little boy who would not likely be alive in a year. He suffered from neuroencephalitis, which is when there is so much water in your skull that the weight of the liquid pushes down on the brain and basically causes mental retardation. What broke my heart was to learn that his medical condition could have been prevented had his mother included folic acid in her diet (basically spinach). Prenatal care is so rare, but so needed in a country where many women have their first child at age 14 and continue to have 6 or 7 or 8 kids. By the time the last kid is popped out, the mother herself is malnourished and so can barely provide proper nutrition for her children. Its a mess, and the worst part is, that it's a mess that can be avoided.

Photography plays a crucial role in communicating humanitarian issues to audiences who would not normally have first-hand knowledge. Check out these photographers for their humanitarian/documentary work (list is not comprehensive - just a grouping of my favourite photographers that do work in this area)

Sebastiao Salgado
James Nachtwey
Reza
Ami Vitale
Cameron Davidson
Shahidul Alam