International Rescue Committee (IRC)
News, Photos & Video › Photo Essays

Photo Essays

This weekend in Delmas 60 (one of two camps in Port-au-Prince the IRC provides with water), our environmental health team met the delivery truck to verify water quality. (Photo: Susana Ferreira/The IRC)
First they filled up two yellow bladders for the approximately 350 families in the camp and the surrounding community. (Photo: Susana Ferreira/The IRC)
Then they took a sample from the water point and tested the levels. The water was chlorinated and safe to drink. The truck driver had added chlorine solution to the water in his tank, and with the motion of driving over Port-au-Prince's rocky, rubble-filled streets, it mixed well throughout. (Photo: Susana Ferreira/The IRC)
Delmas 32, a camp where the IRC is the only international aid agency operating. Delmas 32 has no camp management, and more importantly, no water. There is a reservoir, but water trucks cannot pass through the camp's roads, so it sits empty. When the 1,500 residents here want water, they must go to a nearby kiosk and pay -- for non-potable water. With no water, no ready latrines and an ever-growing pile of garbage, this camp has a serious sanitation problem. (Photo: Susana Ferreira/The IRC)
To address the sanitation problems in Delmas 32, the IRC's environmental health team is building latrines. The IRC has also trained Community Hygiene Promoters who are chlorinating people's water until a more sustainable fix is implemented. (Photo: Susana Ferreira/The IRC)

Safe Water

Caribbean, Haiti
11.03.2010

The IRC is working to prevent the spread of cholera by making sure Haitian quake survivors living in crowded tent settlements have safe drinking water and  latrines.  

Launch Slideshow >
The IRC’s Stephane Barsalou shows members of the environmental health staff how to chlorinate water with a syringe. The IRC is testing and chlorinating water in 30 camps in Port-au-Prince. (Photo: Susana Ferreira/The IRC)
The IRC’s Fritzner Pierre-Louis checks the chlorine levels at a water source in a Martissant camp. It will need to be chlorinated to be safe to drink. (Photo: Susana Ferreira/The IRC)
For every liter of water, between 0.5 and 1 mg of chlorine is needed for it to be safe to drink. The darker the shade of pink on the testing kit, the more chlorine is present in the water. (Photo: Susana Ferreira/The IRC)
IRC’s environmental health team teach a group of Community Hygiene Promoters how to treat water for households in the Teleco camp. (Photo: Susana Ferreira/The IRC)
First they make a chlorine solution. (Photo: Susana Ferreira/The IRC)
Then they treat each bucket of water with a syringe of the solution. (Photo: Susana Ferreira/The IRC)
Two boys from Teleco camp watch as a group of Community Hygiene Promoters learn how to chlorinate drinking water. An outside group trucks in water for the camp several times a day, and residents have complained that it is not clean to drink. (Photo: Susana Ferreira/The IRC)
Heavy afternoon rain turns parts of downtown Port-au-Prince into a river. (Photo: Susana Ferreira/The IRC)
Frequent flooding of streets and camps during storm season is a source of worry, as the water mixes with waste, potentially spreading bacteria and disease. (Photo: Susana Ferreira/The IRC)

Preventing Cholera

Caribbean, Haiti
10.29.2010

The IRC is responding to a cholera outbreak that threatens the capital Port-au-Prince. Our prevention activities are in full gear in 30 settlements where we work assisting some 100,000 earthquake survivors.

Photos by Susana Ferreira/The IRC

Launch Slideshow >
Hai Doo (in gray sweater), his wife Paw Sen and their children take a break from moving in. They were the 200th family to realize the American dream under a home buying program for refugees begun in 2001 by the IRC’s Phoenix office. (Photo: Loren Anderson)
Cassandra Doo (3) and Eh Thayou Paw (7) have fun in their parents’ room in the new house. (Photo: Loren Anderson)
Eh Thayou Paw (7), Yu Eh Paw (10) and Ta How Paw (14) hang out in their own room. (Photo: Loren Anderson)
Eh Thayou Paw (7) (Photo: Loren Anderson)
Paw Hay Wah (5, front) and Serr Nay Paw (9) (Photo: Loren Anderson)
Cassandra Doo (3) (Photo: Loren Anderson)
The family proudly poses for a group portrait in front of the house. “When I was living in the refugee camp, I didn’t think it would be possible to have a home again,” says new homeowner Hai Doo. “Now I feel like my dream has come true.” (Photo: Loren Anderson)

American Dream

United States, US - Phoenix, AZ
10.28.2010

A Burmese refugee family who resettled in Phoenix in 2006 moves into their new home, purchased under an IRC home buying program.

Photos by Loren Anderson

Launch Slideshow >
The IRC’s Suphachai Pitanee checks the pupil reflexes of a Burmese migrant during an eye examination near Mae Sot near the Myanmar border. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)
The IRC’s Tupo Ruengrobpoo performs an eye examination on a Burmese child. During 2010, the IRC has performed eye examinations on thousands of children at 55 schools on the Thailand-Myanmar border. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)
The IRC’s Suphachai Pitanee performs an eye exam. In September, 2010 the IRC border eye program in Thailand reached a milestone when it distributed its 100,000th pair of eyeglasses. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)
Ma Ka, a 47-year-old bamboo picker from Myanmar, suddenly lost her eye sight while working in the fields. Her sister brought her to the Mae Tao clinic in Thailand for treatment. Here, IRC program manager Satja Netek (right) checks the pressure in Ma Ka’s eyes for signs of glaucoma, a disease that can damage the optic nerve and result in blindness. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)
U Tin Shwe, 45, worked as a teacher in Myanmar before fleeing to Thailand. He is now teaching Burmese migrant children in Mae Sot, but found his work increasingly difficult as his eye sight deteriorated. “My new glasses will enable me to work again,” he says. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)
A Burmese woman wears a metal spectacle frame designed to test out different eyeglass lenses. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)
In rural Myanmar, people cannot afford to treat eye diseases or buy glasses. As a result, many become blind from preventable eye diseases or spend their lives suffering from poor eyesight. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)
The IRC’s Win Win Maw checks the eyes of Phyu Phyu Lwin, 9, who is about to receive her first pair of glasses. “I couldn’t see the teacher or the blackboard at school,” she says. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)
The success of the border eye program in Thailand has led the IRC to start similar programs for refugees in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Chad. The newest eye program is slated to open soon in Southern Sudan. Here, a young Sudanese refugee is examined by a health worker in Kenya’s Kakuma camp. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)

Restoring sight

Thailand
10.13.2010

The International Rescue Committee is helping hundreds of thousands of visually impaired refugees and victims of war restore their vision through a unique program that offers free glasses and eye surgery.

Photos and text by the IRC's Peter Biro
 

Launch Slideshow >
The IRC assessed 13 sites in the Tabarre commune, near Port-au-Prince. In some camps, one in ten homes were completely destroyed, and in other camps nearly half the homes experienced severe damage. Over 100 families were identified as needing urgent help with shelter in the Villambetta camp. (Photo: Susana Ferreira/The IRC)
IRC staff assess damage after a major storm and distribute tarps to those most affected in Villambetta, a camp of displaced people in Tabarre, near Port-au-Prince on Saturday, September 25. (Photo: Susana Ferreira/The IRC)
IRC staff distribute buckets and hygiene kits at Le Refuge, a camp of displaced people in Tabarre, near Port-au-Prince, after a major storm tore through camps for Haitian earthquake survivors on Friday. (Photo: Susana Ferreira/The IRC)

Storm Rattles Haiti Quake Survivors

Caribbean, Haiti
09.27.2010

The IRC responded after a major storm in the Port-au-Prince region of Haiti on September 24 saw high winds and heavy rains wreak havoc on tents and temporary shelters. 

Photos: Susana Ferreira/The IRC

Launch Slideshow >
Southern Sudan is one of the poorest and least developed places on earth. Millions of its people are dependent on food aid, malnutrition is rampant, and less than half the population has access to clean water. The semi-autonomous region has made little progress since 2005, when a landmark peace accord ended decades of civil war with the Sudanese government based in the north. The long-running conflict killed more than two million people and displaced millions more. Much of Southern Sudan’s social and economic infrastructure was left in ruins.
Now political tensions are again rising ahead of a referendum scheduled for January 2011. Voters in Southern Sudan will be asked to decide whether they want the south to secede formally from Sudan. Neutral observers say it’s crucial that there be a free election whose results are accepted by both the north and the south. Otherwise, a return to widespread conflict would be a disaster for an already beleaguered people.
The IRC has been working in Southern Sudan for over two decades, helping to reduce violence and rebuild communities. Today, the IRC aids more than 600,000 people across the region.
Most Southern Sudanese have little or no access to health care and must travel long distances to find treatment. In an effort to meet the overwhelming demand, the IRC operates 23 health clinics throughout the region. In 2009, these clinics treated over 300,000 people. This couple sought medical attention for their child at an IRC-sponsored clinic on the outskirts of Aweil.
The IRC's Institute for Community Health Workers in Ganyliel trains dozens of medical workers and advocates who every year spread out across the region to help those in need. At the clinic near Aweil, this pharmacist dispenses medicine to sick patients.
Women in Southern Sudan suffer from terrible health conditions. Ninety percent of all births are unattended and maternal mortality levels are among the highest in the world. The IRC runs “safe motherhood” programs for pregnant women and new mothers and provides prenatal care and training in safe delivery. This mother and her baby are resting at an IRC-sponsored clinic in Malulakon.
Sexual violence against women and girls is widespread, although often hidden and ignored. In the city of Rumbek, the IRC is supporting community groups where women can speak out through songs, drama and discussion. “We talk about violence, early marriage and why girls are forced to drop out of school,” one group member explains. “We say these things should be stopped.”
Children are especially scarred by poverty and the legacy of a war that destroyed many schools. In Bahr el Ghazal, the IRC works with the community to raise awareness about children’s needs and the importance of education. Many children in Bahr el Ghazal do not get enough to eat at home and hang out in the public market to see what morsels they can find.
Following the 2005 peace accord, more than two million uprooted people returned to Southern Sudan. To help them rebuild their lives, the IRC offers support in everything from health care and psychological counseling to job training and education. “Economic progress will take time but I feel things are getting better,” says John Akot, an IRC field manager. Akot fled to Ethiopia as a teenager to escape the conflict. “I’m optimistic,” he says. “All those who died during the war won’t get the chance, but I am lucky that I will get to see our country develop.”
In 2009, photojournalist Christopher Scott traveled throughout Southern Sudan as a volunteer to document the IRC’s work. “Sudan is a difficult place to raise a family," Scott says. “But the people exhibit an intense determination and pride. These mothers and their children are sitting outside the IRC clinic in Malualkon. One can see from the strength in their faces that given the opportunity the future generations of Sudan could flourish." (Updated January 5, 2011)

The IRC in Southern Sudan

South Sudan
09.24.2010

The IRC has been working in Southern Sudan for over two decades, helping to reduce violence and rebuild communities. Today, the IRC aids more than 600,000 people across the region -- one of the poorest and least developed places on earth.

Launch Slideshow >
The Mae Tao clinic, on the outskirts of the town of Mae Sot in northeastern Thailand, is the only source of medical care for thousands of Burmese along the volatile Thailand-Myanmar border. Supported by the International Rescue Committee through its SHIELD program, the clinic treats around 150,000 patients, half of them from within Myanmar, every year. Patients, unable to afford health care elsewhere, are offered a wide range of free services, including an emergency room, 200 hospital beds, surgical, maternity, and eye-care wards, a laboratory and a blood bank. At the clinic’s prosthetics workshop, technicians make and fit artificial limbs, mostly for patients who have stepped on one of the many landmines that litter the border area.
<p>Nyine Tun arrived in the clinic shaking with fever from malaria. She had contracted the often fatal disease two weeks before arriving at Mae Tao from a village deep in eastern Myanmar&rsquo;s interior. &ldquo;I had a very high fever for many days,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I went to the clinic at home, but they wouldn&rsquo;t accept me because I couldn&rsquo;t afford the medicines.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Khin That, 25, suffers from high fever and convulsions caused by malaria. &ldquo;A lot of patients live in mosquito-infested forest areas without access to mosquito nets or anti-malarial medicines,&rdquo; says Saw Aung Than Wai, a senior health worker at Mae Tao. &ldquo;It is probably the number one killer on the border.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Thirty-six-year old Maung Oo, who is yet to be diagnosed, is just one hundreds of Burmese who come to the clinic to receive treatment every day. Some have fled ethnic conflict and economic stagnation inside Myanmar, also known as Burma&mdash;many are members of the Karen ethnic group&mdash;while others are living in Thailand as migrant workers.</p>
<p>While many patients have to travel for days on poor roads to make it to Mae Tao, for many, it&rsquo;s the only way to receive free healthcare. When U Mya Aye contracted tuberculosis, it not only threatened his already fragile health, but the economy of his entire family. Unable to pay for his treatment and in serious financial debt after costly chest X-rays, the 53-year-old Burmese traveled across potholed dirt roads on the back of a truck to make it to the clinic. &ldquo;It was not easy to get here, but it saved me,&rdquo; he says.</p>
<p>Dr. Aya Tanabe, a volunteer from Japan, and Eh Ta Mwee, a senior medic, perform an amputation in Mae Tao&rsquo;s surgery ward. The Myanmar border area is littered with landmines, maiming and killing hundreds of people every year. At Mae Tao&rsquo;s prosthetics clinic, landmine victims and amputees receive free surgical and post-operative care, artificial limbs and rehabilitation.</p>
<p>Over 80 percent of all patients who receive prostheses at Mae Tao are landmine victims. All patients are very poor and cannot afford artificial limbs in Myanmar.</p>
Mae Tao is also training technicians, all of them landmine survivors, in the construction of prosthetics. Hundreds of Burmese landmine amputees have been fitted with prosthetic limbs and undergone rehabilitation since the prosthetics clinic opened in 2001.
Up to a dozen poor Burmese women a day give birth safely at the clinic's maternity unit. According to studies conducted by organizations affiliated with Mae Tao, the infant mortality rate in eastern Myanmar is 91 deaths for every 1,000 births, compared to an average rate of 76 for the rest of the country and only 18 in Thailand. At Mae Tao, all newborns are provided with birth certificates -- a crucial document in order to claim Burmese nationality in the future.
Myanmar has the fourth highest child mortality rate in the world with up to 150,000 children under the age of five years dying every year, according to the United Nations. At Mae Tao, children receive treatments ranging from acute surgery, immunization, de-worming and supplementary feeding.
In isolated rural areas, disease and malnutrition are endemic. This underfed and anemic boy is treated with a blood transfusion. “He is recovering fast,” says senior health worker Saw Aung Than Wai.

Lifeline on the border

Thailand
08.30.2010

The Mae Tao clinic, on the outskirts of the town of Mae Sot in northeastern Thailand, is the only source of medical care for thousands of Burmese along the volatile Thailand-Myanmar border.

Photos by Peter Biro/The IRC.

Launch Slideshow >
<p>IRC Atlanta caseworkers Elhamija Kadic (right) and Meliha Bosnjak, former refgees from Bosnia, place an order for mattresses for the evacuee families&#39; new homes. Photo: Jim Stawniak.</p>
<p>The Freeman family of New Orleans gets ready to sign the lease on the apartment the IRC found for them in Atlanta. Photo: Jim Stawniak.</p>
<p>Lola Freeman tours the new apartment with IRC caseworkers Rod Conrad and Yulia LeGood. Photo: Jim Stawniak.</p>
<p>Rod (left), Lola, and Yulia (far right) check out the apartment&#39;s fully stocked kitchen. The IRC is furnishing evacuee families&#39; apartments with kitchen supplies, beds, bedding and other household basics. Photo: Jim Stawniak.</p>
<p>Lola and Gerry Anderson (far right) meet one of their new neighbors. Photo: Jim Stawniak.</p>
<p>Lola shows photos of the home the family lost to Hurricane Katrina. Photo: Jim Stawniak.</p>
<p>Gerry meets with IRC job developer Kelly Irwin. The IRC is helping hurricane evacuees find job opportunities with employers in their new communities and set up interviews. Photo: Jim Stawniak.</p>
<p>Vu Lam, from Biloxi, Mississippi, assembles furniture for the apartment donated to his family while his mother, Van Dang (standing, left) and IRC caseworker Maryam Williams look on. Photo: Jim Stawniak.</p>
<p>Vu Lam&#39;s wife, Nhi Nguyen, prepares lunch. Photo: Jim Stawniak.</p>
<p>IRC caseworker Maryam Williams, from Iran, reviews bills with Vu Lam. Photo: Jim Stawniak.</p><p><em><span style="font-size: smaller;">(First posted December 2005)</span></em></p>

After Katrina: A new home in Atlanta

US - Atlanta, GA
08.27.2010

Across the United States, IRC resettlement offices, which have long helped refugees from war-torn countries rebuild their lives, extended aid to families displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. Photographer Jim Stawniak was on hand that fall when two families who lost homes to Katrina moved into the new apartments the IRC found for them in Atlanta.

 

Launch Slideshow >
In the absence of bridges, boats made from inner tubes and bamboo ferry passengers and goods across swollen rivers. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
An old man, made homeless by the floods, collects firewood in Pakistan’s Swat valley. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
Amjad Ali (with his neighbor Muhammad Aqil, right) has been forced to flee twice in little over a year. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
Over one million houses have been destroyed by floodwater, leaving an estimated 8 million people homeless. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
A girl sits by a damaged school in Swat district. As a result of the floods, education will be badly disrupted across Pakistan. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
A communal well filled with thick mud in Mingora. Poor sanitary conditions and a lack of safe drinking water have created the potential for serious outbreaks of disease. To help stop the spread of disease, the IRC is distributing water purification tablets. The next step is to distribute drinking water and clean wells. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
In some areas, the Pakistani army has set up makeshift lifts to ferry people across rivers. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

A flood in the valley

Pakistan
08.25.2010

Already battered by a brutal counter-insurgency war, the people of Pakistan’s Swat Valley are now watching their lives and livelihoods washed away by flood waters.

Photos by Peter Biro/The IRC.

Launch Slideshow >
Two men walk through what was recently a large rice field near Sukkur in Pakistan’s Sindh province. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
Two children living in a makeshift camp along a highway bridge in Sukkur, Sindh province. Nearly 20 million people have been affected by the floods, which now cover a fifth of the country. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
People continue to stream into urban centers and camps. These men are packing up their families’ belongings as the flood water is rising in Sindh province. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
An estimated 3.6 million people were homeless in Sindh province alone, with numbers expected to rise in coming days. These girls are sheltering with their families out in the open in Sukkur, Sindh. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
A woman sheltering in a mosque on the outskirts of Sukkur. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

Pakistan floods push South

Pakistan
08.24.2010

The IRC's Peter Biro took these photos in the southernmost province of Sindh, where people continue to stream into urban centers and camps as the flood water rises.

Launch Slideshow >