Little IDPs
Some of the younger displaced people (IDPs) that I ran into at one of the camps in which they are living. 350,000 Yemeni’s have fled violence in the northern region of Sa’ada.
Returning From the Mouth of Hell
My colleagues who are based in Haradh describe it as the mouth of hell. A good day is 40º C (104º F). And bad days can top 50º (122º F). Aside from the few shrubs which dot the landscape, Haradh has little to offer beyond its basic hotels and restaurants that cater to traders moving [...]
Photography in the Face of Adversity
I am writing this post from some anonymous airport lounge, watching the sun rise over the tails of the planes scattered carelessly on the runway. I have just left Haiti and am on my way to the next adventure, wherever that may be/. (Watch this space). I can only apologise for the recent prolonged deathly [...]
Haiti Earthquake Response: 3 Months On [vid]
![Haiti Earthquake Response: 3 Months On [vid]](http://ash.clem.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Screen-shot-2010-04-12-at-8.08.10-PM-150x150.jpg)
60 hours of international travel gives one a little free time to get stuck into photo editing. To keep myself busy I decided to play around with some of my photographs from the last couple of months in Haiti. So here is a video commemorating those who have worked (and are still working) to pick [...]
Moving On: Portraits from Haiti [vid]
![Moving On: Portraits from Haiti [vid]](http://ash.clem.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/IMG_7718-150x150.jpg)
So my time in Haiti is over. But I am not without a few shots to show for it. Here is a small collection of photos of some of the people I met during my time in the country. I was impressed by how many of my subjects showed a strength and a joy that [...]
A Visit to a Rural Island Community in Haiti
Knowing you’re only an hour or so from the bustling city of Miami makes La Gonave all the more surreal. Roads are a relative term on this island, where donkeys replace cars, and electricity and telephones are beyond the reach of most residents.
The island of La Gonave – only around 30 kilometres in length – [...]
Finding Entertainment In Rural Haiti
A few weeks ago we travelled for an assessment mission to Haiti’s remote Plateau Centrale. In the afternoon we were waiting for the helicopter to return. On the side of the road, a group of boys began to play one another in a game of marbles.
This was no amateur event. These kids were seriously proficient! [...]
Haiti’s Homeless: Looking For A Place To Call Home
Two months on from the devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti’s crowded capital, Port-au-Prince, and shelter remains the number one issue among those displaced, and among the aid agencies scrabbling to lend a hand. Over one million people are thought to have been displaced in the disaster.
Having shelter is about more than a roof over your [...]
A Refugee’s Story: Waiting For School
Fawaz, nine years of age, is anxious to go to school. He keeps his school bag packed, ready for the day when he will be allowed to return. But sadly for Fawaz, like many in his position, he is forbidden to attend school.
International Troops Support Haiti Aid
It’s been nearly two months since the earthquake struck Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince. Still, much work needs to be done to support those affected. Although the numbers have dropped considerably in the past days, thousands of international forces remain in the city to provide security for relief efforts.
Aid agencies are divided over the principles which [...]
Helicopter to Hinche: Exploring Quake-Affected Rural Haiti
We carried out an assessment into rural Haiti today, looking into the affects of the hundreds of thousands of people that are reported to have fled from the capital, Port-au-Prince. Both rural and urban areas of the country struggled under immense poverty, even before the quake. So the ability of anywhere in the country to [...]
Holding On For Life
At 14 Ko Ko lost his parents and two brothers when Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar’s low-lying coastal regions in May of 2008. He and his young sister, however, were saved thanks to his quick thinking and determination.
The cyclone brought with it a surge of water up to two metres high that washed across the rice [...]
Haiti’s Needs Remain Great Despite Evidence of Normality Returning
It has been six weeks since Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, was rocked by a magnitude 7 earthquake, killing up to 230,000 people, and leaving another million homeless. A drive through the city centre is all that is needed to see the scale of the destruction. Much of the rubble remains in place, despite the teams working [...]
Helicopters Bring Relief to Myanmar Delta
As we flew a couple of hundred feet above the Delta I looked down to see a seemingly unending expanse of murky water. A month earlier Cyclone Nargis had decimated the rural Irrawaddy Delta and on into Myanmar’s former capital, Yangon.138,000 people were left dead or missing, with up to 2 and a half million severely affected. Even a month on from Nargis, the waters had not fully receded, and many rice paddies and fields remained under water or were so contaminated by the sea water that the cyclone brought in that the would grow nothing that planting season.
Faces of the Caucusus
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In August 2008 as the Russian and Georgian armies clashed over South Ossetia, I was sent to the Caucasus to tell the story of those vulnerable people caught up in the violence with the hope of bolstering international support for reaching a peaceful settlement to the crisis. These pictures are of [...]
Experiencing Local Colour: Kickboxing in Yangon
I have always been somewhat opposed to boxing, and kickboxing Muay Thai is no exception. But when a colleague invited me along to watch a tournament in Yangon, I took it as something of a cultural experience.
Documenting a Crisis: Iraqi Refugees
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Up to 2.5 million Iraqis had fled from the war in Iraq into neighbouring Jordan and Syria when I was sent to work on the crisis. Yet the world seemed to neither know nor care about this mass exodus of vulnerable people. In 2007 I was assigned the task of [...]
A Refugee’s Story: The Little Red Car
Gabriel takes his little red car with him everywhere. It is the same colour as his father’s car. At only six years old, Gabriel saw his father die behind the wheel of his red car. He sat and watched helplessly as the driver of the car that deliberately smashed into theirs pulled the gold wedding band off his father’s finger.
Meeting The Orphans of the International Community
I don’t routinely go searching for refugee camps. But one day, while working in Jordan, we set out to look for a camp that we had heard rumours about. All we knew was that the camp was in the middle of the desert to the east of Amman, was full of Palestinian refugees who had [...]