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Saywon Tarlesson braids a customer's hair in her salon in a Monrovia suburb.
Boy stands next to a burning garbage dump near some homes in a Monrovia slum.
Joezel Mompleh sells fish to a local woman from her stall in a Monrovia market.
Annie Grant in her market stall in a Monrovia, Liberia suburb.
Ruth Famah arranges greens at her produce stand in a Liberian market.
Laurina Tokpah behind the counter in her shop in Monrovia, Liberia.
Christine Jacobs in her drink shop in Monrovia, Liberia

Learning to succeed

Liberia
04.04.2011

The IRC is helping disadvantaged girls and young women in Liberia learn a trade or start their own business.  So far, all the program's graduates have gone on to build successful businesses, an achievement that is all the more remarkable given the country’s dire poverty and the lack of opportunity for women. 

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The day after their arrival, Uma accompanies the family to the Bronx.
Man Maya walks carefully down the stairs to the Grand Central Station platform.
On the subway, the new arrivals were surprised to see street performers dancing.
The family has another new experience - riding the escalator.
In the Bronx, Uma escorts her in-laws to their new apartment.
Dill Ram and Man Maya
Ama was most excited about seeing her grandchildren.
Man Maya adorns Uma with a necklace from Nepal.
In Nepali culture necklaces are a symbol of marriage.
As the youngest son, Om is his parents’ caretaker.
In Nepal, Om lived with Chet Nath, Uma and Kushal outside of the camp.
Om is happy to be in the United States with his family.
Arriving home from school, Pratiksha jumps into her grandfather’s arms.

A reunion in the Bronx

US - New York, NY
04.01.2011

In the fall of 2009 Chet Nath Timsina’s parents, Dill Ram, 66, Man Maya, 63, and his youngest brother, Om, 22, arrived in New York from the refugee camp in Nepal where they had been living for 18 years. Photographer Misha Cohen documented the family’s first few weeks in the United States.
 

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Meningitis vaccination in Chad:
Meningitis vaccination in Chad:
Meningitis vaccination in Chad:
Meningitis vaccination in Chad:
Meningitis vaccination in Chad:

Meningitis outbreak

Chad
03.25.2011

In March 2011, the IRC, its UN partners and the government of Chad vaccinated 40,000 people in four days as a deadly meningitis epidemic reached a refugee camp where the IRC is the sole health provider.

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The people of Shah Wasaye returned to their village in late February. More than six months after the floods, the community is still in ruins.
A resident of the village clears debris from the spot where his house once stood. Flooding destroyed an estimated 1.7 million homes throughout Pakistan.
The IRC's Dr. Abdul Jalil examines patients in the village of Shah Wasaye. Most communities were poor even before the floods struck. Now they are suffering from an upsurge in disease brought on by food shortages, contaminated water and poor hygiene.
Parveen Abro, an IRC nurse, treats a girl from Shah Wasaye. The IRC operates two mobile health teams in Sindh Province that provide services to some 50,000 people.
Some 170,000 flood victims remain in camps for displaced people, according to the United Nations. The number of homeless people is much higher, including those living in tents beside wrecked homes, like this family near Shah Wasaye.
This family built a makeshift structure outside Shah Wasaye. The village's farm land and livestock were destroyed by the flooding.
The IRC has launched a far-reaching project that will rebuild vital infrastructure in hard-hit Sindh Province and help over 150,000 people.
Food shortages are acute in some areas of Sindh Province. The IRC's new aid project will rehabilitate agricultural land and distribute seeds, fertilizers, poultry and livestock.
The IRC supplies drugs and equipment to rural health clinics such as this one in the village of Mianjogoth.
The IRC has installed water tanks, hand pumps and latrines across Sindh Province. In the village of Aitbar Brohi, a girl pumps drinking water from a well.
A boy enjoys a clean shower in the village of Aitbar Brohi.
Cases of diarrhea and scabies have dropped dramatically since the IRC installed a fresh water supply, according to Mohammed Alem, who lives in a tent in Aitbar Brohi.
Much of Pakistan's flood zone is in the same desperate shape as it was six months ago. Although the international aid effort has helped millions of people it is still struggling to catch up to the immense human need.

After the flood

Pakistan
03.22.2011

More than six months on, the humanitarian crisis brought about by the worst flooding in Pakistan’s history is far from over.   The IRC is providing clean water and health care, and helping hard hit communities to rebuild vital infrastructure and kick start their local economies.

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A landscape of hills in northern Ethiopia
George Rupp walks toward a temporary classroom in the refugee camp.
Fifth-grade children sit in a temporary classroom in the refugee camp
George Rupp talks to a fifth grade class at the refugee camp.
A teacher stands in front of her class in teh refugee camp.
Houses at Mai Aini refugee camp, with hills in the background.
George Rupp stands with members of the refugee camp's women's association.
IRC social workers: They support Eritrean women in the refugee camp.
A small child stands in front of a row of tents at Adi Harush refugee camp
George Rupp speaks with refugee from Eritrea Adi Harush refugee camp.
George Rupp and the delegation pose with IRC staff in Mai Aini refugee camp

New refugee camps

Ethiopia
03.21.2011

IRC president George Rupp shares photos of his March 2011 visit to two relatively new refugee camps in northern Ethiopia, Mai Aini and Adi Harush, which serve as a temporary home for families who fled conflict in neighboring Eritrea.

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With second graders at Shimelba Primary School: The school's teachers come from the refugee community, but there is a major challenge because many have left to resettle in the United States. Many more will be leaving in the coming weeks and months, leaving a shortage of qualified teachers.
A teacher leads pre-school children to have their snack of nutritious porridge, which is a crucial meal of the day for them.
The children eat their porridge from big plastic cups.
Principal Afowerk Gebrehiwet with a fifth grade class. He leads a school of 1,200 refugee children and 47 staff members.
We were entertained by fifth grade children who sang, "Every day I get up. Every day I wash my face and I go to school where I learn."
The IRC runs three "child-friendly spaces" in Shimelba. These are places where refugee children can share their needs and worries in a safe and caring environment.
The IRC also provides vocational skills training to young people aged 14 to 29. The computer skills course is hugely popular.
Young women from a life-skills group invited us to a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony that involves preparing and drinking coffee three times. They meet every week over this extended coffee ritual to discuss a specific topic that allows them to share their personal challenges.
During the coffee ceremony the young women talked about one of these challenges: overcoming shyness and fear. They were soon sharing their concerns about the future with us.

Shimelba's children

Ethiopia
03.17.2011

IRC president George Rupp shares photos of his March 2011 visit to classrooms in the Shimelba refugee camp in Ethiopia where the IRC provides educational programs for pre-schoolers up to adults. 

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George Rupp and IRC staff at Shimelba refugee camp, Ethiopia
We had a warm welcome from the staff in Shimelba.
It’s always important for me to meet with IRC staff, to hear their concerns and to also express my appreciation for all the hard work they are doing -- often in very challenging circumstances.
Shimelba camp is a vibrant community with small shops and cafes. People are making the best of their lives here.
The IRC is providing clean water to more than 8,000 refugees in Shimelba
Everywhere we went in the camp, we were greeted warmly by young children.
A part of Shimelba refugee camp with the primary school in the background. The school is supported by the IRC
Another view of Shimelba and its thatch-roofed houses.

Shimelba refugee camp

Ethiopia
03.16.2011

IRC president George Rupp describes his March 2011 visit to the Shimelba refugee camp.  The camp was the first stop on a journey through Ethiopia's northwestern Tigray region,  where the IRC's work  focuses on children, women, health, water and sanitation.  

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The IRC's Tatenda Gonye leads a cholera prevention session in Zimbabwe.
Women participating in the session review a handout about cholera. Cholera is a deadly bacterial disease spread by contaminated water that can quickly cause acute diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration.
A woman being treated for cholera in a rural clinic.
A woman washes clothes in the contaminated Odzi river in eastern Zimbabwe
Cows graze nearby as children pump water in eastern Zimbabwe.
Two boys hold up a banner that reads, "We will not perish from cholera."
A woman writes on a flip chart at a health worker training session

Protecting communities from cholera

Africa, Zimbabwe
03.10.2011

A decade of economic troubles has eroded Zimbabwe's water and sanitation infrastructure, leaving its people vulnerable to cholera and other water borne illnesses. The IRC is working in the country's remote eastern highlands to help restore community water systems and respond to outbreaks of disease.

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Chris de Bode/SV
Chris de Bode/SV
Chris de Bode/SV
Chris de Bode/SV
Chris de Bode/SV
Chris de Bode/SV
Chris de Bode/SV
Chris de Bode/SV
Chris de Bode/SV
Chris de Bode/SV
Chris de Bode/SV
Chris de Bode/SV
Chris de Bode/SV
Chris de Bode/SV

Trying to get home

03.07.2011

A transit center set up in Tunisia at the Ras Adjir border crossing has become saturated with people who fled the crisis in Libya -- many of them foreign workers who are trying to make their way home. As the arrivals outpace the departures, the IRC is launching sanitation and shelter services.  Chris de Bode with our partner SV shared these photos from the border.

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A midwife feeding a malnourished infant at a pediatric facility in Monrovia.
Two boys who are being treated for acute malnutrition at a Monrovia hospital
A mother feeds her infant daughter milk at an IRC-supported hospital.
A young girl recovering from surgery in a Monrovia, Liberia hospital.
The IRC's Dr. Jude Senkungu examines a malnourished child.
Dr. Jude Senkungu with young patients at an IRC-supported hospital
A mother tends to her newborn baby in a Monrovia, Liberia hospital.
The IRC's Celia Kohn operates on a woman suffering from internal injuries
The IRC's Celia Kohn (right), one of only three gynecologists working in Liberia
A malnourished baby in a hospital in Monrovia, Liberia
The IRC's Celia Kohn examines a young patient at a Monrovia hospital
Mothers walk by their children’s beds in the pediatric ward
A nurse in Monrovia treats a child suspected of having contracted malaria.

A health system on life support

Liberia
03.04.2011

Fifteen years of civil war left Liberia's healthcare system in ruins.  The IRC is providing medicine, doctors and equipment to 33 rural clinics and five hospitals that serve more than 320,000 people. The IRC also supports the largest pediatric facility in the capital, Monrovia. 

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