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Dadaab – the New Crisis August 2, 2011

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Aftermath, Aid, Kenya , add a comment

Photo Jehad Nga for Time Lightbox
Photo Jehad Nga for Time Lightbox

The world’s biggest complex of refugee camps is already so full, there are about 70,000 people living outside it. Mostly women and children, they shelter from the elements in domelike huts made from sticks, plastic sheeting and discarded cartons from aid packets. Toilets are scarce, and water is delivered periodically by truck.

The conditions in Kenya’s far east are all too familiar to the refugees, Somalis fleeing drought and famine in the Horn of Africa. Hawa, 40, who arrived here recently after a 23-day trek with seven children, is disappointed. “What I found is that there is little difference between Somalia and a refugee camp,” she says. The Somali refugees must make a perilous journey from their conflict-ridden country. They navigate for days through forbidding terrain, usually on foot. Most of those who arrive are badly malnourished; aid workers say many children don’t survive the trip, and some die as soon as they arrive.

Inside the Dadaab refugee complex, the world’s largest, 380,000 people are crammed into a space meant to hold a fourth of that number. Built in the 1990s, mainly for Somalis escaping a war between the government and Islamic militants that rages to this day, the complex cannot accommodate the influx of refugees streaming across the border: 30,000 people are estimated to have arrived in June, a steep climb from the monthly average of 5,000 last year. “This is the most problematic and challenging refugee situation in the world,” said António Guterres, chief of UNHCR, the U.N. agency that runs the camps, after a visit in early July.

Story by Sam Loewenberg for TIME

Photos Jehad Nga, freelance photographer based in Nairobi Kenya

http://lightbox.time.com/2011/07/21/haven-and-hell-the-worlds-largest-refugee-camp/#ixzz1Sj4GGGh3

Breaking News: Oslo Terrorism July 23, 2011

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Aid, Breaking News, Oslo Norway , add a comment

Photo Robert McPherson/Metaphor Images
Photo Robert McPherson/Metaphor Images

Robert McPherson, a Metaphor Images photojournalist based in Porsgrunn advised me via iPhone last night of the tragic attack on children on Utoeya island in North West Oslo. A huge explosion damaged government buildings in central Oslo on Friday including Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s office, injuring several people, a Reuters witness said. The blast blew out most windows on the 17-storey building housing Stoltenberg’s office, as well as nearby ministries including the oil ministry, which was on fire.

In what is the biggest terrorist attack in Western Europe since the 2005 London transport bombings, the terrorist detonated a bomb exploded in the Norwegian capital in mid-afternoon scattering shards of glass and masonry and twisted steel across the streets.

Then the gunman opened fire at the youth camp of the ruling political party on Utoeya island, north-west of Oslo. Police said many children were shot dead as they fled shooting on the small, wooded island. The island was evacuated and police found undetonated explosives.

The gunman, a 32-year-old Norwegian citizen, is being  held by police. The double attack bore some hallmarks of al Qaeda but analysts suggested right-wing militants might also be responsible. More images will be posted as they come in.

A bombing victim seeks help after the Friday attack in Oslo
A bombing victim seeks help after the Friday attack in Oslo

Bomb Attack victim Oslo
Bomb Attack victim Oslo

Bomb Attack Oslo
Bomb Attack Oslo

Photo Robert McPherson/Metaphor Images

Photo Robert McPherson/Metaphor Images

Red Zone Christchurch May 11, 2011

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Aftermath, Aid, Disaster, Documentary , add a comment

Jon Bassett’s recent photos of the aftermath in Christchurch are a reminder of the difficulties faced by New Zealand to rebuild the city after its earthquake. The red zone shows the problems the city confronts.

Story by Jon Bassett

AUSTRALIAN reporter Jon Bassett spent a few hours driving around earthquake-affected Christchurch in New Zealand at end of a private holiday recently.

ROVING teams of Christchurch City Council workers in trucks put traffic cones in roads to warn drivers of new potholes a month after the deadly magnitude-6.3 aftershock hit the South Island, New Zealand city on February 22.

The cones mark uprisings of the porridge-like mix of glacial stones and water – called soil liquefaction - in suburbs east of the city centre.

The aftershock killed 181, caused about $3 billion of damage and shattered the city of 370,000 five months after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in which there were no deaths.

About 50,000 people left Christchurch following days following the aftershock, many promising never to return.

Christchurch’s QE2 Drive goes  through some of the worst affected coastal suburbs where residents share with shattered sewers share portable toilets placed on verges every 100 metres.

Sewage trucks removing the effluent have replaced the city’s buses as the most frequent large vehicles on the roads.

Timber bungalows lie crooked in New Brighton, garages collapsed, while brick buildings, such as the corner shop – a ‘dairy’ Kiwis call them – are already being cleared by excavators.

A resident dressed in a hoodie mumbles “Disaster tourist”, reacting to pictures being taken of the damage.

In upmarket Sumner, where the seaside hilltop homes look towards the still snow-capped Southern Alps, a cliff has collapsed on homes, the hip cafes and cinema strip seem held together with scaffolding and roads looked more like the patched and hole-filled tracks of a mountain pass.

In the multi-storey CBD, solders and sailors read magazines at their posts, bored on duty stopping people entering the commercial district in which 17 businesses were demolished for safety the previous week.

Adjacent St Peter’s Church is wrecked, its devastation a reminder of those killed when Christ Church Cathedral’s spire collapsed.

On the radio there is talk of a rebuilt city, of the CBD along the Avon River becoming a tourist and café strip with more parks, and offices and shops moving to western suburbs near the airport.

Life appears normal in western suburbs where café diners take lunch and many New Zealanders fly flags from their houses, which is a noticeable change and a sign of solidarity compared with  the usually low-key nationalism of the often dour South Islanders.

Christchurch Photo John Bassett
Christchurch Photo Jon Bassett

Christchurch Photo John Bassett
Christchurch Photo Jon Bassett

Christchurch Photo John Bassett
Christchurch Photo Jon Bassett

Christchurch Photo John Bassett
Christchurch Photo Jon Bassett

Christchurch Photo John Bassett
Christchurch Photo Jon Bassett

Christchurch Photo John Bassett
Christchurch Photo Jon Bassett

Christchurch Photo John Bassett
Christchurch Photo Jon Bassett

The Anniversary April 26, 2011

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Aftermath, Aid, Arthur Bondar, Children of Chornobyl, Chornobyl, Reportage, Ukrainian Photographers , add a comment

The road into Pripyat in the Exclusion Zone Chornobyl

This is the road into Pripyat, the abandoned worker’s town in the Chornobyl exclusion zone.

It is the 25th Anniversary of the world’s most catastrophic nuclear accident in Chornobyl, Ukraine.  It continues to be the benchmark by which the industry is judged and it continues to produce imagery by photojournalists to remind us of a legacy that is more a curse than the blessing of endless energy. Paul Fusco’s amazing work for Magnum on the victims of that tragedy is powerful not just for the photos but also for the commentary in his multimedia piece that is playing on Slate Magazine

http://www.slate.com/id/2291888/

There are many reactions to the tragedy of Chornobyl but I was struck most by Kyiv photographer, Arthur Bondar’s cynicism.  For him what has happened at Chornobyl is that it has been turned into a huge “business machine” where people “make money out of other people’s tragedy”.  He is adamant that his uncompleted mission in Chornobyl can avoid the 25th anniversary machinations and produce content that is of importance. I have a lot of faith in his philosophical vision and in the quality of his photography.

Photo Arthur Bondar
Photo Arthur Bondar

http://www.arthurbondar.com/

I have been to Chornobyl in 2007 and was overwhelmed by it. More significantly I was touched by the work of doctors in Lviv’s hospitals for children affected by the tragedy. Their work and the work of  CCRDF (the Chornobyl Relief and Development Fund) is relentless and of incredible value.

http://www.ccrdf.org/

See Gary Knight’s photos from the accident on VII Agency’s Magazine:

http://player.viistories.com/index.php#entryId=328&showAds=true

Andrij, a child  in a Lviv Hospital 2007 which treats children suffering from genetic and radiation defects. Andrij has been abandoned by his parents to a life in an orphanage. Lviv is in Western Ukraine.
Andrij, a child in a Lviv Hospital 2007 which treats children suffering from genetic and radiation defects. He has been abandoned by his by  by his parents to a life in an orphanage. Lviv is in Western Ukraine.

A child with necrosis of her skin in a Lviv Hospital 2007 which treats children suffering from genetic and radiation defects. Lviv is in Western Ukraine.
A child with necrosis of her skin in a Lviv Hospital 2007 which treats children suffering from genetic and radiation defects.

A child  in an operating theatre in a Lviv Hospital 2007 which treats children suffering from genetic and radiation defects. Lviv is in Western Ukraine.
A child in an operating theatre in a Lviv Hospital 2007 which treats children suffering from genetic and radiation defects.                                      Photos Bohdan Warchomij

AFTERMATH March 30, 2011

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Aftermath, Aid, American Photographers, Japan, Newsweek, Redux , add a comment

Q Sakamaki is a New York based photographer for the Redux Agency working in North East Japan for Newsweek and this essay looks at the tsunami aftermath and the return of people of people to what is left of their homes and communities.

Q Sakamaki documents the devastation.

http://www.newsweek.com/photo/2011/03/20/japan-devastation-sakamaki.html

Photo Q Sakamaki
Photo Q Sakamaki

Japan Disaster March 18, 2011

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Aftermath, Aid, Disaster, Documentary , add a comment

Yasuki Yamahata photograph Nagasaki Survivors
Yasuki Yamahata photograph Nagasaki Survivors

There have been comparisons between the disaster caused by the Japanese tsunami to the infrastructure of Japanese cities  and the nuclear reactors and the loss of life and the catastrophe of World War II.

Daylight Magazine has intimated the following in this Vimeo link:

“Considering the danger posed by thousands of active nuclear weapons and hundreds of potentially dangerous nuclear reactors it is not surprising that the specter of nuclear-induced destruction remains at the back of our minds. Indeed, atomic disaster may be the single largest threat to human existence. In this edition of Daylight Magazine we have compiled the work of several photographers concerned by the use of atomic technology and its implications for the future.

Featuring portfolios by: Harold Edgerton, Robert Del Tredici, Carole Gallagher, Chris McCaw, Pierpaolo Mittica, Jürgen Nefzger, Simon Roberts, Richard Ross, Paul Shambroom, Ramin Talaie, Hiroshi Watanabe, and Yosuke Yamahata.”

http://vimeo.com/21043220

Fukushima
Fukushima

Fukushima
Fukushima

800_japan_nuclear_radiation_test2_ap_110313

Miyagi Japan
Miyagi Japan

r733615_5937162r733692_5938610r733730_5939403r734034_5944801r734244_5947624r734295_5948569r734509_5953450r735357_5966642r735903_5975109

James Nachtwey, XDRTB on Burn magazine April 12, 2010

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Aid, American Photographers, Disaster, Documentary , add a comment

James Nachtwey

Struggle To Live

http://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/01/james-nachtwey-struggle-to-live/

Burn Magazine continues on its innovative exploration of the net with a story by James Nachtwey on XDRTB (Extremely Drug Resistant Tuberculosis),  a photo essay which was  generated by a $100,000 TED Grant, and which has been critically explored in comments by readers of LENS, the New York Times Blog, and by Robert Godden from The Rights Exposure Project (see link).

What the discourse has done has been to draw attention to a terrible disease and at the same time to make photographers aware of their responsibilities to the victims of disease. It is not enough to just bear witness.

http://www.adevelopingstory.org/2010/war-photographer-a-dangerous-idolatry

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/behind-37/

Photo James Nachtway
Photo James Nachtwey

Australian Aid Organisations working in Haiti January 17, 2010

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Aftermath, Aid, Haiti, Relief , add a comment

The earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince has had the world scrambling to deliver aid to the Western World’s poorest country.  Logistically it is an overwhelming task.  The harbour is damaged and there are difficulties offloading ship supplies.  Toussaint Louverture International Airport is running out of fuel and only one runway is operational.  Some relief workers and medical crews are coming in via the Dominican Republic.

(Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola, which lies between Cuba and Puerto Rico.)

Carolyn Cole LA Times
Carolyn Cole LA Times

The following aid agencies are working in the devastated country: The list, by no means exclusive, gives a guide to the established agencies working on the ground in Haiti. Please use personal discretion if donating to the appeals listed.

Medecins Sans Frontieres suffered damage to some of its own buildings in the earthquake, including its main hospital facility and a maternity facility.  It is running makeshift medical centres in tents around the capital while it attempts to locate some of its staff missing since the disaster.

You can donate to MSF’s effort in Haiti through its Australian office’s website or by phoning 1300 13 60 61.

Save the Children has estimated that  many children have been orphaned and have been made homeless.

The charity has said cash donations are what is  most needed at the moment.

You can donate to Save the Children’s Haiti Earthquake Emergency Appeal at this link.  Donations can also be made at NAB branches or by phoning 1800 76 00 11.

Australian Red Cross has  launched an appeal.  The charity says the money raised will be directed to the relief and recovery efforts in the devastated capital and other areas.  Specialist aid workers will also be sent there.

You can donate to the Australian Red Cross Haiti Earthquake Appeal online or by phoning 1800 811 700.

World Vision provides temporary shelters, hygiene kits, cooking utensils, clothing and water containers and medical teams to deal with earthquake victims. To donate visit www.worldvision.com.au or call 13 32 40.


Oxfam has 100 staff on the ground in the quake zone, providing water and shelter supplies.  “Any country would have difficulty withstanding this disaster, let alone one with deep poverty and minimal infrastructure,” the charity has said.

You can donate to Oxfam’s Haiti Earthquake Appeal online or by phone at 1800 034 034.

CARE Australia has said the biggest challenge facing aid groups on the ground is reaching all those who need their help.  CARE’s staff have been handing out food and other supplies.

The agency has said a donation of just $50 can provide water sanitation kits to homeless families.  You can donate to CARE’s Haiti Earthquake Appeal online or at 1800 020 046.

The Australian Government has committed $10 million in emergency aid to the Haiti relief effort.  The Department of Foreign Affairs’ 24-hour consular emergency centre can be reached on 1300 555 135.

The United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund has  allocated $10 million in relief aid.  Individuals and businesses can donate to the CERF at that link.  Donations can also be sent to UNICEF’s Haiti Emergency Appeal.