I’m Katie, you may notice from my accent that I’m not from round here.
I live in London, England and as Kelly’s already mentioned I work as a photographer and in communications.
Over the last 4 years I have had the privilege of working with African Road, I was a volunteer in their Portland office for a couple of months, but I confess the role I love the most is being in East Africa taking photos.
I like to talk and I’m rarely short of words, but it is very difficult to describe to you the beauty and brilliance of East Africa, to tell you of the magnitude of the mountain that these Changemakers are climbing, and the significance of their actions to the world around them.
So I’m going to cheat and use images to help:
You might recognise this guy.
You’ve already heard from the wonderful David Clemy about the impact of his work across East Africa. This is one of my favourite photos of ViCoBa, taking from a session 2 years ago at The Togetherness Cooperative in Rwanda.
This was the first time that I had experienced ViCoBa in action and I was supposed to be taking photos, which eventually I did. However, before I knew it, I was sat at the back trying to hide the fact that I was taking notes.
How many times in my London life do I think about what I need, need, need rather than what I have, have, have? I’m a freelancer and it has transformed the way I think about my work.
For the young people in this cooperative it has transformed their life, their worlds.
This training brings aspiration and it brings agency.
These young people are now pre-school teachers, and commercial bakers, they are farmers and entrepreneurs. They now believe they have control of their own destiny and they can work with their community to change it.
East Africa needs more of this. The world needs more of this, but East Africa really needs more of this. Women are still vulnerable, political tensions are high, inequality is rife. This is a battle for hope.
David is currently training trainers so that this work can spread far and wide. ViCoBa needs to reach more communities, and African Road wants to partner with David to make that happen.
Burundi is the hungriest country in the world[1].
Let me say that again, against tough competition, Burundi was ranked by the Global Hunger Index as being the hungriest country in the world.
What’s more, many of the people who African Road partner with are the Batwa, they are a 1% of the population, minority group, disadvantaged and the poorest of the poor.
They are the poorest of the poor in the hungriest country in the world.
African Road partners with Evariste, who is Batwa and is determined to help his people. So in the last few years, because of friendship and encouragement, as well as financial investment, storehouses have been built to house their incredible corn harvest – food for their community.
They have ID cards. Without an ID card you cannot vote, you cannot get a birth certificate for your child, you cannot access healthcare, public transport, you do not exist.
They have ID cards, children are registered, they are going to school and they have uniforms. With the receipt of these uniforms, most children are getting their first pair of shoes.
Let’s talk about the next generation of Batwa children growing up with education and clothes and food. We’ve been working with 3 villages, there are many, many more. African Road is partnering with Evariste and his incredible team, to enable more people to exist legally, to exist politically, and to even exist physically in the hungriest country in the world.
Now I said that I would only show you 3 pictures, but I’ve broken the rules. I’m actually going to show you 4.
I’m a city girl, I live in central London and to this point I have not had a great interest in agriculture, I can get excited about corn on a BBQ, with butter, but that’s about it.
And then you go to the hungriest country in the world, in the middle of East Africa parts of which have a famine, and the Batwa villages, your Batwa villages have a successful corn harvest – the reaction is extraordinary. If you think you’ve seen joy before, you’ve seen nothing!
This is what it looks like. This (above).
I can’t finish my photo tour without one image from Tanzania, and the story of Consoler. The first film that you saw, made by the very excellent Craig Spinks, told the story of Consoler and New Hope For Girls.
Save the Children have conservatively estimated that in country trafficking and domestic servitude, slavery by any other name is everyday life for 20% of 5-17 year olds in Tanzania[2].
I’ve selected this image because it is the epitome of New Hope for Girls. This flash of beauty and bright colour amidst a dark and challenging circumstance.
Consoler, a remarkable women, and incredible Changemaker has transformed her horrendous experience for good, rather than for pain, and is now changing lives in Tanzania.
Consoler and Eliya have taken in 30 young women who would otherwise be in servitude. There are many, many more.
There is great need, but when individuals take even a small step towards others, there is great hope.
[1] This is taken from the Global Hunger Index from 2014, where it had sat at the top for the 3rd year in a row. Records could not be kept for 2015 + 2016 due to political uncertainty and the inability to gather data. www.ifpri.org
[2] https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/countries/tanzania