What is your role?
I’m an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development (AYAD) on a six month placement with CARE Ghana. Funded by AusAID as part of Australian Volunteers for International Development, the AYAD Program posts young Australians in developing countries to share knowledge and skills with the local counterparts in their host organisations. I’m working on CARE Ghana’s Cocoa Livelihoods and Empowerment (CLEP) project which focuses on facilitating the development of poor, vulnerable, and marginalised farming households in the cocoa growing areas of Ghana. My role is to assist in enhancing women’s empowerment across the CLEP program, and through CLEP’s Cadbury Cocoa Partnership initiative, I will work on improving youth participation in farming and community development. I’ll also be doing some work on developing training modules for identified additional livelihood projects.

Where are you from?
I come from Melbourne, a city which I love and seem to love even more when I’m away from it. This six month period in Ghana will be the longest I will have lived somewhere outside of Melbourne!

Who are you working with?
I’m working in CARE Ghana’s Kumasi sub-office. The CLEP program is the office’s core program, which means I’ll get to work with most of the staff across the office. I’ll also be coaching and exchanging ideas with undergraduate students selected as Cadbury Cocoa Ambassadors and will be making frequent visits to the project communities which stretch across two regions in Ghana. To assist me in my work, I have also been linked with gender specialists from both CARE USA and CARE Australia.

What are the things you’ve taken with you/can’t do without?
I definitely maximised my 30kg airline baggage allowance, although over-packing is one of my great strengths and once again I succeeded in doing so for this trip to Ghana. However, I do not regret bringing bottles and bottles of insect repellent (mosquitoes love me and malaria is a big problem in Ghana) and my small supply of my favourite muesli and tuna. The one item that I couldn’t do without is my hard drive, as the long list of movies keeps me company on lonely nights, especially when I’m travelling outside of Kumasi.

What are the best tastes/smells/sounds/sights since you’ve been there?
No matter where you are in Ghana, there is always something interesting to look at. Ghanaians seem to be able to carry anything on their heads – hand-bags, enormous pots of food, suitcases, stereo sound systems – anything! I’ve seen taxis crammed full of goats, men wearing technicolour business suits with matching hats, and mini-buses although over-flowing, being able to squeeze more passengers in. I love that in Ghana you can do nearly all your shopping outside the car window – toilet paper, bread, fruit, phone credit, music CDs and even ice-cream!

Sometimes when I get home from work I sit outside and try to identify all the different sounds I can hear – dogs barking, frogs, cicadas, goats (which I often mistake for babies crying), the pounding of fufu (pounded cassava and plantain – one of Ghana’s staple foods), sweeping (a sound which will always remind me of Ghana), preachers at near-by churches, children playing, women laughing, hip-life music (which I seem to be able to hear no matter where I am in Ghana), and of course the traffic (which Kumasi is renowned for). There is definitely never a dull moment in Ghana!

What are your must dos outside of work while you’re in Ghana?
Weddings and funerals are large, colourful and joyful celebrations and provide a great insight into Ghanaian culture. These events seem to occupy the busy weekend schedules of most Ghanaians, and invitations for both events are spread far and wide. From what I’ve heard, funerals are actually the biggest celebrations in Ghana. Things I’ve been told to look out for at funerals are novelty coffins of which designs can include bananas, cocoa pods or chickens (depending on what kind of farmer the deceased was), cars, bibles and even beer bottles. “Hired mourners” are also not-uncommon (people whom are paid by the family to join in the grieving at the funeral in order to make the deceased look more popular). Apparently they are quite easy to pick as they tend to “over-mourn” and upstage the actual grieving family members.

What are you most looking forward to learning?
I’m looking forward to learning about Ghanaian culture and deepening my understanding of the social issues that are currently affecting Ghana’s development. I also look forward to spending more time in CARE’s project communities so that I can witness firsthand the positive effects of CARE’s work.

How are you going with the local language?
I have been quite dedicated in attempting to learn the most commonly spoken local language in Kumasi, Twi. The Kumasi CARE office is located on the outskirts of the city so I am living in a small community close by. Ghanaians are very friendly and welcoming people and in smaller communities especially, it is not uncommon to greet every person that you pass in the street. This makes what should be a short walk to the bus stop, much longer, but I thoroughly enjoy it as I get to test-out my Twi. Seeing the beautiful big smiles on people’s faces when I greet them in Twi is very rewarding and also a great way to make new friends.

Is there anything you’re missing yet?
I miss soy lattes! And my family and friends, especially the special little children in my life back at home. Luckily, Ghana is full of gorgeous children and I am daily having children walk me home, usually fighting over who gets to hold my hand.

More information on Australian Volunteers for International Development

Yalemie is a member of her village’s Water Committee, established through CARE’s water, sanitation and hygiene project. Her role in the committee is to be the pump attendant – she maintains and repairs the water pump that her village worked with CARE to build.

‘I am happy because I have benefited from pure water. I know about the parts of the pump and I can maintain them. Before, I didn’t know anything about hand pumps or pure water,’ she says.

Before the pump was here, Yalemie would walk for two hours to the river twice a day to collect water for her family. Often, her daughter would miss school so that she could help her mother make the long journey with heavy water containers.

‘Now, I walk 250 metres to the hand pump to get safe water. This scheme saves us a lot of time, and we are happy because our health is also saved.’

Yalemie maintains the 17 metre deep hand pump which provides safe water to her village. The community provided the labour and local resources and CARE stepped in to provide advice and foreign materials when required. Yalemie and the six other members of the Water Committee maintain the pump and introduced by-laws that set fines for any mistreatment. This system ensures that there is local ownership of their new resource.

In addition to providing and maintaining clean water for the community, the Water Committee also learn about important behaviours to maintain health and hygiene, including: using toilets, washing hands, vaccinating children, disposing of waste in rubbish pits, cleaning utensils and practicing good personal hygiene.

Yalemie has applied this knowledge in her own home. Now, her family proudly boasts a new toilet, a hand washing basin and a shower. Yalemie opens up her home for her neighbours to view these self-made additions and gives her visitors advice about improving their own family’s health and hygiene.

‘I am happy that I can provide hygiene education for the community through modeling my home. First, I teach my family and then community about hygiene and sanitation, and then I will teach the whole village.’

As well as maintaining the village water pump, Yalemie and the Water Committee help educate the community on good hygiene practices, such as using toilets, washing hands and disposing of rubbish safely. Image: Josh Estey/CARE

CARE realised that the Water Committee’s regular meetings were also the perfect opportunity for increasing each individual’s income through the power of group savings. Each month, the members contribute 6 birr (32 cents), and as the total climbs members can take a loan for productive activities, which is then paid back with interest.

Yalemie has not taken a loan yet, but she is planning to take one soon to start her own poultry business. Despite not receiving any money from the group yet, she is already benefiting from the scheme in ways she had never imagined.

‘I have learnt now that a woman can earn and decide about her own money.  We can start our own business in our own village. Women have money and the right to decide how to spend it. Before, only men could do this.’

Yalemie’s husband is supportive of her role in the Committee, and the improvements she has made to his family’s health and opportunities.

‘My husband was not happy before, now he his happy because the community has had discussions with CARE about the different roles of men and women. Before, only women fetched the water, now the men in the family help as well, and we are both happy.’

Over the past 18 months, Yalemie’s role in her community has changed dramatically. She is now the person responsible for sustaining her community’s access to safe water; the person who teaches her entire village about health and hygiene; and a contributor to the savings pool that is helping her peers realise their dreams as business owners.

Yet, despite all of her achievements, there is one role that Yalemie values above all others, and that is her role as a mother.

‘My family is healthy, and that is so important to me. Even though I am not educated, I now know there is something I can teach my children. I now have hope that my children will get a good job rather than being a farmer like me.’

Join CARE’s Walk In Her Shoes challenge

For those of us in the city of Niamey in Niger, we are seeing the first signs of food crisis spreading across our country. We have seen it before. It has already started, and it is coming fast.

The first phase is when young men and women start  leaving the villages, coming to the big towns, looking for work. Knock, knock. They come to your door and say: ‘Do you have any work?’ You ask them, ‘What can you do?’ And they reply, ‘Anything. I can do anything.’

In the second phase, they come to the door, knock, knock: ‘Do you have any food? I haven’t eaten in three days.’

Tajana Dam Maya lives in Dakoro, Niger, where a food crisis is spreading. Photo: CARE/Melanie Brooks.

In the third phase, they don’t ask anymore. You wake up and go outside in the morning, and there is a family sleeping on your doorstep. They don’t ask for anything, they just look up at you, hoping. If you give them something, they say thank you. If you don’t give them anything, they are quiet. They just put their heads down, slowly get up and move to the next house. It takes just a couple of months to go from phase one to phase three. It’s amazing how quickly it happens.

We are already in phase one.

We need to act now: provide cash-for-work so people can buy food; provide school feeding programs so children stay in school; support resiliance efforts like community gardens and cereal banks. Once people start showing up in the cities, it means they are already coming to the end of their resources. They have sold their assets. They have no food.

This is happening now.

Assamaou Rabi, 23, holds her seven-month-old baby. Her husband, Aminou Chaibou, 29, sits behind her. Aminou participates in CARE's cash-for-work program, which provides participants with 1,000 Fr per day ($AUD 2) in exchange for work clearing an inedible weed that has taken over the pasture area, and reseeding it with local grasses that will provide food for local cattle. Image: Melanie Brooks/CARE.

CARE did an assessment in one of the villages, and already we are seeing that there aren’t many young men and women left – they are leaving for the cities and towns, hoping to find work. And here in Niamey, people are already starting to show up at our doors – ‘Knock, knock’.

Ten million people across the Sahel region in West Africa are at risk of a severe food crisis. Low rainfall and pests have destroyed entire food crops, leaving families with little or nothing to eat. CARE is urging Australians to act now to avoid a humanitarian disaster of the scale occurring in East Africa.

Please donate to CARE’s West Africa Food Crisis Appeal.

Divorce can have social stigmas attached to it in countries all over the world. In Ethiopia, it can also leave women trapped in poverty.

Young girls in rural Ethiopia have limited opportunities to access education and are often married as young as 15 years of age. Their sole task is then to care for their husband’s household and their family.

With the average family size of three children, and without the knowledge and confidence to earn their own income, divorced or widowed women are particularly vulnerable to poverty.

Since joining a CARE Village Savings and Loans group, Fasika has gained new skills and has the opportunity to save for the future. Image: Josh Estey/CARE

Fasika is a 32-year old divorced mother of two. When she was married, she would help her husband with farming vegetables and grains. When he left her, she was forced to move to the country’s bustling capital, Addis Ababa, and seek work as a domestic servant. This is an option many women take, and is one that can leave them vulnerable to their employers.

After finding life in Addis Ababa was no easier for her or her children, Fasika moved back home. When she returned, there was something new in her community – CARE had started a village savings group that also taught members how to increase their income through farming and raising animals. Fasika eagerly signed up.

‘I have been a member of the savings group for two and a half years. I have gained a lot of experience in animal rearing and fattening, poultry production and how to trade. Before I was a farmer, I didn’t do any other activities, but now I know these skills and I also know about saving,’ she says.

And save she does – Fasika is now the proud owner of a sheep, purchased with the profits earned from joining her first savings group. Since then, she has started three other groups with CARE’s support – one exclusively for female-headed households like her.

By participating in village savings and loans groups, women are able to take out loans for income-generating activities, allowing them to better provide for their families. Image: Josh Estey/CARE

She contributes a total of 21 birr ($1.10) to the four groups each month and benefits from the annual share-out days of interest and the ability to take a loan for income-generating activities.

Already, Fasika has saved 2,800 birr ($164) from the groups, which she plans to spend on constructing a new home.

‘Now I am living by my own means,’ she explains. ‘When I store enough money in my savings book I will construct a new house.  I have bought utensils to prepare food and drinks in my home. Such household items were not possible for me to purchase before, but all of my expenses are covered now. I am also teaching my children these things and sending them to school.’

As Fasika’s income has increased, so has her confidence. As a member of four of the groups and the savings advisor in one, she has learnt new skills such as public speaking, book keeping and decision-making. Importantly to Fasika, the groups also learn about gender equality, and how to support the role of women in their community.

‘Before, our culture was to not let women speak publicly. We have received training about gender and now women have power to speak in the community. That has changed my life.’

‘Before, our culture was to not let women speak publicly. We have received training about gender and now women have power to speak in the community. That has changed my life.’ Image: Josh Estey/CARE

‘Before, the biggest challenge for a female-headed household was poverty. But now, most of the women in the female-headed group have bought sheep, goats, improved their homes, and can cultivate their land by themselves. We even bought an ox that we share. Before, we had to rent out our land because we didn’t have an ox to plough it, but now we plough the land by ourselves.’

With a greater income and new leadership role in her community, Fasika is daring to dream of a better future for her children. ‘I would like to keep sending my children to school. If they have good capacity, they can join university and become a doctor, engineer, whatever they like,’ she says.

Find out more about CARE’s work in Ethiopia.

Curiosity got the best of German pensioner Hans Feldmeier, who had the tin tested because it didn’t have an expiry date.

The lard was part of more than 100 million packages that provided much-needed aid to people in war-torn Europe. The packages included items such as sugar, preserved fruit, chocolate, biscuits, coffee and tinned meat. Germany alone received more than 10 million CARE packages.

A CARE Package in the 1960s. Image: CARE

After eating the lard, Dr Feldmeier was pleased to learn that international aid organisation CARE continues to provide aid for people in need.

‘I am delighted to know that the spirit of humanity I witnessed back in the days is still alive today. The modern CARE package might not contain lard anymore, but the message of hope and humanity remains the same’, said Dr Feldmeier.

CARE was founded in 1945 as a consortium of 22 American organisations to ease suffering and hunger in post-war Europe. CARE stood for the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe and the organisation’s package quickly became a symbol of hope and reconciliation. In later years, CARE expanded its programs of relief and development to other parts of the world.

Women unpack a CARE package at Christmas, 1948. Image: CARE

Today CARE is one of the world’s largest aid organisations and works in more than 80 countries around the globe, fighting poverty with over 1,000 projects that reach 122 million people.

The modern CARE package does not contain lard, coffee and chocolate. Today, CARE’s relief items are purchased on the ground to support local markets and to ensure a fast response when a crisis strikes.

Read more about CARE’s history

I clearly remember when the world started to focus its attention on the food crisis in the Horn of Africa – it was July 2011. At that time, more than 4.5 million people in Ethiopia were in need of food assistance and water shortages were putting millions at risk of diseases. By then, it had been almost a year since I released a drought alert for the Horn of Africa to our partners.

In August 2010, la Niña, a weather phenomenon that usually provokes dry weather conditions, was forecasted. As an Ethiopian who has been affected by drought, I knew the potential consequences of such a forecast.

CARE immediately started to prepare ourselves and we launched our first relief interventions in February 2011 with activities to provide water to drought-affected communities in Borena, southern Ethiopia. We also provided food assistance in East and West Hararghe in Oromia region and in Afar region in eastern Ethiopia. We later provided nutrition and livelihoods interventions in order to have an integrated response.

Chronic food insecurity is commonplace in rural Ethiopia in any year, irrespective of unusual climatic or economic shocks. Many factors contribute to this, including land degradation, limited access to basic social services, population pressure, and near complete dependence on rain-fed, subsistence agriculture.

The majority of Ethiopians rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. As most agriculture is rain-fed, reliable and sufficient rainfall is critical for the country’s economy and food security. Each year, depending on the location, Ethiopia has two rainy seasons and one or two dry seasons. The most difficult period of the year is called the “lean season”, when food stocks are low and the new crops have not been harvested yet. This usually happens at the height of the rainy seasons. Food prices tend to rise during that period while livestock prices significantly decline.

People use different mechanisms to cope with the lean season, such as reducing the number of meals per day, buying less food and selling livestock. Once assets are sold, it takes a very long time for people to rebuild their capital and they become increasingly vulnerable and trapped in a cycle of poverty.

When asked about the impacts of the 2011 drought, many start recalling the interrelated chain of events that pushed them over the edge. Ashenafi, a 35-year-old farmer and father of eight, explained to CARE how he progessively sold his assets over the years to cope with the drought or lean seasons. As a result, he kept sliding further and further into poverty.

In 2005, Ashenafi was in a position to provide a decent life for his family and send all his children to school. He owned a house with a corrugated roof and had three oxen, one cow, three sheep, three goats and thirty chickens. Then, during the 2006 drought he was forced to sell one of his oxen and three sheep. A year later, he had to sell another ox and his three goats to cope with the lean season. The last ox was sold in 2008, along with all his chickens. And then in 2009, he had to sell his cow that provided milk for his children.  Every time Ashenafi sold his livestock, he did so at the peak of the lean season, which meant that he had to sell at a reduced price.

When the drought hit in 2011, with no other assets on hand, Ashenafi was forced to sell his house. He now lives in a hut with his family and has started to receive food assistance, initially from the government and later from CARE.

My own family story is very similar to Ashenafi’s. We were also farmers, and during the severe drought in 1984, my family lost all their assets. We had to sell our cows, oxen, horses and goats in order to survive. During that year and the one that followed, we received support from NGOs. My family participated in cash-for-work projects, where they worked on soil and water conservation activities in exchange for a salary. We also received funds to buy plow oxen that helped us to restart our agricultural activities.

CARE is working with farmers to help them become independent, resilient and less vulnerable to future crises. Image: Josh Estey/CARE

Two years later, my father was able to secure a position as a guard in a government seedling nursery. As a result, we were less vulnerable. We still continued to farm, but a low harvest no longer had the devastating impact it did before.

Progressively, my family was able to rebuild its capital and buy plow oxen, sheep, goats, cows, donkeys and horses. Recovery was a long process, but eventually all my siblings were able to graduate from college and find good jobs. Today, we are in a position to resist shocks, such as drought, and we can also support other family members and friends.

Ashenafi’s family can follow a similar path if they also receive timely and appropriate support. Receiving seeds and small ruminants will help his family to restart their agricultural activities in the short term. Water system rehabilitation/development will ensure that his family has reliable and easy access to water, which will positively impact the health of all the members of his household. Since women typically bear the main responsibility for fetching water, this will also free up time for his wife and daughters – time that can be better used for school and productive employment.

Other initiatives, like village savings and loans associations, will help his family to accumulate savings, improve their cash management and enhance their access to credit. Such projects, which focus on gender equality, will also help Ashenafi’s wife to be more active in her community and engage in income-generating activities, therefore increasing her family’s income.

Improving agricultural efficiency frees up women to engage in income-generating activites, increasing their families' incomes. Image: Josh Estey/CARE

We know how to support people to improve their resilience and avoid future crises. Ideas abound, but recovery support will be critical. Ashenafi and his family will get back on their feet only if we immediately support them in recovering from the drought and continue to do so in the medium to long term. This way, in a few years Ashenafi’s family can also succeed like my family did and become independent and resilient.

Let’s work together to make this happen.

Read more about CARE’s East Africa appeal

Where did you give birth?
In my family’s coffee garden.

Who assisted you?
No one.

This is how a conversation started between CARE PNG staff and a new mother in rural Papua New Guinea. CARE had agreed to help the provincial government assess the support available to pregnant women and new mothers, and while the conversation above was common, the reasons why women were alone in the bush while giving birth are as individual as the women themselves.

Village Birth Assistants help local women, decreasing the barriers to giving birth at a health facility. Image: Josh Estey/CARE

The staff tried to delve to the root of women’s reasons for not going to a health centre to give birth and most of it came down to fear: fear of the health worker who is not from their village and doesn’t speak their language, fear of seeking help from a male health worker, fear that their family will be asked to pay for the service, fear that the medications they’re given will hurt them, fear that the health worker will yell at them and make them do things that feel painful or wrong.

It is a generally accepted fact that health workers in rural areas are ill equipped to deal with obstetric emergencies—they have not received the training or tools needed—and  the nearest hospital is an expensive flight away.
Their inability, and in some cases unwillingness, to provide basic antenatal and obstetric care speaks to a more deeply-rooted issue.

‘Do you know what the women of PNG call midwives? Barking dogs… because they never stop making a terrifying racket’ said a teacher in a university midwifery program. She went on to explain that the unit on bedside manner has just been taken out of the new midwifery curriculum. She wants to teach new midwives that they are service providers and need to have empathy for their clients but there are other priorities for the time being.

CARE PNG is working with the provincial government to support pregnant women and new mothers. Image: Josh Estey/CARE

So what is the solution? Where to begin?

CARE PNG, in collaboration with the Provincial Division of Health, is training Village Birth Attendants (VBAs) in some of the most remote areas of PNG.  The primary role of the VBAs is to decrease the number of barriers to women giving birth at a health facility. VBAs are chosen by the women of their community and they are women themselves. This alone seems to engender trust. VBAs are then trained. They learn how to recognise the signs of high risk pregnancy and how to counsel women to go to the health centre for an antenatal check-up – addressing the individual fears that women have. VBAs then accompany the mother to the health centre and act as an advocate – both translating and explaining what the health workers are doing and ensuring the woman agrees to the interventions. VBAs assist the health worker throughout the antenatal checks and delivery, a constant companion and champion for the mother. Finally, when they are not able to get a woman to a health centre, VBAs are able to safely attend an uncomplicated delivery.

Since the introduction of Village Birth Assistants, more women at getting antenatal check-ups and attitudes towards local health centres are slowly changing. Image: Josh Estey/CARE

It’s far from perfect—VBAs are a stop-gap measure in the floundering health care system. That said, they are having an impact—more women are having antenatal check-ups and it’s hoped more will agree to professionally assisted births. VBAs are changing how women view the health care centre—one mother at a time.

Read more about CARE’s work in Papua New Guinea

I still remember the 1st of May 2011. His Excellency Mwai Kibaki, the President of Kenya, declared the ongoing drought a national disaster and called upon donors and well wishers to support the country in that difficult time. For the many Kenyans living in marginal areas, the failure of two successive rainy seasons had made access to water for their household, livestock and farming needs increasingly difficult. For pastoralists who already live in the harsh arid and semi-arid areas, this made their already difficult lives even harder. The situation then worsened, with the declaration of famine in parts of southern Somalia. More and more families fled the country, leading to an unprecedented influx of refugees to the Dadaab complex in Northern Kenya.

It was really encouraging to receive the full support of CARE International members, who readily sent us emergency staff from their head offices. These colleagues covered all sectors including water and sanitation, gender, media and communications and numerous other field experts. This support is much appreciated in such a crisis.

“Building resilience, not dependency”
Over the past six months, as the crisis has put the region’s most vulnerable people in an even more precarious situation, CARE Kenya has been able to assist over 1 million of the most vulnerable pastoralists as well as refugees in Dadaab directly. While we are proud of this achievement, many challenges still remain. The security situation in North-Eastern Kenya and Dadaab has deteriorated. This has meant that our work in Dadaab has had to be limited to only life-saving activities. But we don’t intend to stop what we are doing; aiming to defend dignity, fight poverty and provide basic life-saving assistance to those who need it most.

CARE is working to build resilience among poor communities to help them to better deal with challenges like climate change and rising food prices. Image: Sabine Wilke/CARE

The approach we have taken is to ‘build resilience, not dependency’. CARE recognises that with climate change, population growth and rising food and oil prices, poor communities in the arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya’s North-East and Somali refugees need assistance that builds on their own capacity, skills and experience. The communities we work with are far from passive, helpless and dependent. We see this every day: In Dadaab, CARE is being supported by more than 2,200 refugee workers in managing food distributions, teaching children and creating community committees. In North-Eastern Kenya, we are building local communities’ skills in managing water and other natural resources, in increasing financial service provision and financial literacy, and improving livestock market chains.

We know that these crises are going to hit again, and we want to build peoples’ capacity to cope with the problems without asking for external assistance. This is how we can help defeat poverty and defend the dignity of those we work with.

In the red dusty landscape of southern Zimbabwe, a slight figure walks under the blazing afternoon sun with a tin bucket swinging by her side.

It looks like a difficult and tiring task, but 10-year old Agnes* is happy to collect clean safe water that is just 400 metres from her home.

Every afternoon, Agnes walks to a borehole that has been recently repaired by CARE to provide her and 300 other families with safe, clean water near their homes and school.

Collecting water is a task that is almost exclusively carried out by women and girls in developing countries like Zimbabwe. Without a safe borehole to collect water from, many females in Agnes’ community used to walk for hours, several times a day, to collect enough water for their families to drink, bathe and cook with. Even after walking long distances to find water, what they would source may not necessarily be safe to drink.

The lack of access to clean water, and lack of toilets and information about sanitation have caused illness in Agnes’ community – in 2009 the cholera outbreak that devastated parts of Zimbabwe claimed 4,000 lives and infected more than 100,000 people.

Since CARE’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project has been operating in the area, this has changed for many families.

Now, 300 toilets have been built by local communities, with assistance from CARE. Over 40 boreholes have been rehabilitated – providing access to safe water for thousands of people like Agnes.

‘The borehole is closer to our house, so it’s a good thing that we can get water there now. It is about 400 metres from our home and 200 metres from my school.’

Agnes has developed a new interest at school that helps her make the most of the new water and sanitation resources. She is a member of her school’s health club, a group that is open to any student who would like to learn about preventing illness through sanitation and hygiene practices.

CARE encourages teachers in the community to start a health and hygiene education club at their school, and provides the teachers with support and advice on how to teach hygiene principles that will improve the health of students, and their families.

‘I really like being in the health club because I get the explanation about how diseases are spread. We learn about mosquitoes, diarrhoea and houseflies. We learn through drawings and from books,’ Agnes says.

‘I teach my younger brother and sister what I learn as well. Now, we wash our hands after going to the toilet, we know how to store water in the house and not to play in stagnant water. ‘

Now, her daily routine includes sanitation principles at every opportunity – and she and her family are healthier because of the initiatives she has shared with them.

‘In the morning, I make my bed, eat breakfast, sweep the house and bathe while my mother collects the first lot of water from the borehole.

In the afternoon, I bathe again, sweep, wash the dishes, collect more water with my mother and help make the fire for cooking dinner.‘

With less time spent collecting water, and more activities in her home to keep her family healthy, Agnes is able to concentrate more on her studies. And what does a young girl with a passion for health and hygiene want to do when she leaves school? Help others to be healthy too, of course!

Agnes explains, ‘When I finish school, I would like to be a nurse because I don’t want people to get sick. I want to take care of them.’

Sign up to Walk in Her Shoes today!

*Names changed to protect children

Two years since the devastating earthquake which killed more than 220,000 people, Haitians are rebuilding their lives and regaining their confidence with assistance from CARE.

CARE has a five-year, $US100 million plan to help Haiti recover. These photos document the past two years of CARE’s work in Haiti, including the initiail devastation and the recovery and rebuilding phases.

The devastation in Port-au-Prince in the moments after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake. Image: Evelyn Hockstein/CARE

CARE began responding immediately, distributing food, water purification tablets and shelter to those in need. Image: Evelyn Hockstein/CARE

CARE began responding immediately, distributing food, water purification tablets and shelter to those in need. Image: Evelyn Hockstein/CARE

A CARE distribution of rice which targeted women in the first weeks after the earthquake. Image: Evelyn Hockstein/CARE

17 year old Choumika came to hospital after developing symptoms of cholera during the outbreak in late 2010. There is a great deal of misinformation about the disease and treatment, which CARE is working to combat. Image: Sabine Wilke/CARE.

Magdala St Ange, a member of CARE Haiti’s emergency response team, explains cholera prevention to a group of children and distributes soap. CARE’s team also provides hygiene and sanitation training to prevent the spread of cholera. Image: Evelyn Hockstein/CARE.

CARE provided advice and assistance to pregnant and breastfeeding mothers and distributed safe delivery kits and newborn kits. Image: Sabine Wilke/CARE.

- A baby is vaccinated at one of the women’s centres supported by CARE in Leogane. Image: CARE.

Micheline Jean-Claude, 23, is a latrine attendant for CARE at Camp Pactiti. She receives 200 Gourdes per day (around $5) and is responsible for maintaining the latrines and hand washing stations. CARE provides Micheline with brooms, masks, gloves and detergent to keep the latrines clean. Image: Evelyn Hockstein/CARE.

Masseleine Dorwilus, a 34-year-old mother of five outside of her temporary shelter provided by CARE. Image: Evelyn Hockstein/CARE.

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