A Lift From Mom
Neelum Chand carries her son, Shuvam, 1, through the Nutrition Rehabilitation Home (NRH) in Dhangadhi, Nepal, after lunch on Sunday, April 29, 2012. The NRH, a project of the Rural Women’s Development and Unity Centre, a Nepali NGO, works to restore malnourished children to health. Forty-one percent of Nepali children under age 5 are short for their age (stunted), according to the preliminary 2011 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey. Stunting is an indicator of malnutrition, and ensuring children are properly nourished in the 1,000 days between pregnancy and age 2 are vital to a child’s development.
Photo by Laura Elizabeth Pohl/Bread for the World
Farming in Appalachia
Rhubarb – the leaves are poisonous but the stems taste delicious in strawberry rhubarb pie.
I love my job. I sometimes get to travel around and ask people questions and photograph and film their lives. Basically, I have professional license to be nosy. This past week I worked in southwestern Virginia, documenting farms and farm-related activities. I learned a lot about small-holder farms and what it takes to survive in this country. These are some generic photographs from the past few days. More will eventually appear as stories on the Bread for the World website.
Winter rye in a field near Duffield, Va.
Farms near Duffield, Va.
Did you know asparagus grows straight out of the ground? I didn’t.
The Price of Immigration for Bread for the World
Part of my work as multimedia manager at Bread for the World involves producing poverty- and hunger-related stories that humanize these issues. It’s not easy. I think people suffer from ennui when it comes to seeing pictures and reading stories about poor and hungry people. It’s like, “Oh, another hungry child. Another poor, homeless man. I feel so bad.” And then people move on.
The response has been different with “The Price of Immigration,” a story that I worked on earlier this year with my colleagues Molly Marsh, Ivone Guillen and freelance multimedia editor Brad Horn. The idea was to show the life of an undocumented Mexican worker in the United States – to show that he is a real person with real dreams, hopes and feelings.
The immigration dialogue in the United States tends to characterize undocumented workers as unwanteds who steal American jobs and must be kept out with a border fence. In most cases, these people have come to the United States because they couldn’t support themselves or their families back home. A border fence will not prevent them from trying to help their families. Just think: If the United States were plunged into poverty and Canada loomed as a source of jobs – any jobs – wouldn’t many Americans do whatever they could to get to Canada and make money to support their families back home?
My colleagues and I spent five days getting to know “Jose,” the main subject of this story. It was challenging to photograph and film him in a way that didn’t reveal his identity. There are several photographs and video clips that made it into the final edit but I had to exchange out at the last minute because some of my co-workers thought they could identify “Jose.” From the day I started researching this story to the day I published this video was almost four months. It takes time to produce a good story. I think this one is pretty good. Though, of course, there are quite a few things I’d do differently. But that’s for another blog post on another day.
What follows is my original text that ran with the video on Bread for the World’s blog.
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Jose likes soccer. He likes his car. And he loves his family, which is why he left Mexico for the United States when he was 17, started working, and now sends home about 20 percent of his pay to support them. Like many of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, Jose came here for opportunities that don’t exist at home.
“We’re not criminals,” said Jose (not his real name). “We just come here to seek a better life.”
Indeed, economic necessity is the reason people risk their lives to work in the United States. And contrary to rhetoric that immigrants steal American jobs and drive down wages, immigrant labor is essential to the U.S. economy, as research shows:
- The Arizona economy would shrink by $48.8 billion, or 20 percent, if all undocumented workers left the state, according to an Immigration Policy Center study out last week.
- Immigration improves employment, productivity, and income but needs adjustments that respond to the economic cycle, states a 2010 Migration Policy Institute study.
- Hispanic immigrants contributed $9.2 billion to the North Carolina economy in 2006 and created 89,000 spinoff jobs, according to research by Dr. James Johnson, professor at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan Flagler Business School.
Jose is one Hispanic immigrant contributing to North Carolina’s economy. He moved there five years ago, found a job, and joined a church. My colleagues Ivone Guillen, Molly Marsh, and I first met Jose at his church this past January, and we found him to be very kind, polite, and open to talking with us. We could tell he missed his family. He showed us pictures. He shared stories of life back home.
Listening to Jose speak and watching him live his limited life in North Carolina (we spent five days with him), you just think to yourself, “You don’t leave people you love unless you must, because economic and social circumstances force you to go.”
Cocoa in Wehplay, Liberia
Last month I had the privilege of getting to know David Kpan, a cocoa farmer in Wehplay, Liberia. After the civil war ended in 2003, David rehabilitated his ravaged farm and grew just enough crops to support his family. Now, with help from a U.S. organization, he runs the farm as a business and is prospering. David has the greatest laugh and the most wonderful spirit, something that I hope people will see in the multimedia story I’m currently editing about him and his farm. More to come….
The power of the purse: Haitian women build their economic strength
Therese Vilfare, 40, Fonkoze client since 2010
Purses: They carry all sorts of useful sundries such as pens, business cards, lipstick, and gum. Most importantly, purses carry money.In Haiti, where 54 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day, microfinance organization Fonkoze is helping women build businesses that feed their families, lift them out of poverty and pad their purses with a bit of cash.
Last week at a Fonkoze community meeting in Mirebalais, I noticed the variety of handbags women carried around. Many bags were black. Some were small. All seemed to be carried with pride by their owners. I had been looking for a way to visually connect non-Haitians with Haitians in a way that wasn’t patronizing or demeaning; here was my way. Many women around the world carry handbags and can relate to carrying a purse that reflects her personality and style.
The Fonkoze women were more than happy to be photographed with their purses. They patiently waited in line while I photographed woman after woman against the exterior white wall of an old church. Women who didn’t bring handbags to the meeting borrowed one from a friend. Everyone wanted to be photographed. I had fun watching the different ways women chose to hold their bags. Some held them, others clutched them, some hung them around their neck, which really made me laugh. You can see all the portraits on Bread for the World’s blog.
Fortifying Haitian kids against malnutrition
Molly and I had the privilege of visiting a Fonkoze vitamin distribution meeting in rural Haiti. Babies and toddlers everywhere, some crying and some silently awaiting their fate: a dark blue gel capsule cut open and the contents drained into each kid’s mouth. See more on Bread for the World’s YouTube channel.
(Above: That's me photographing while snowshoeing through a snowstorm. Picture by