Empowering Communities, Restoring Hope

Photos and text are by Daniel Cima, the photographer whose stark images remind readers of the daily challenges faced by people coping with chronic food disasters and contributing causes. Cima has photographed the work of American Red Cross and other Red Cross/Red Crescent volunteers providing hope to millions of people around the world for three decades. Cima traveled to Kenya and Ethiopia in April 2006 with a team from the American Red Cross.

View additional photos in this series, Click Here Click on regions. Click here to return to the introduction.

Tragically, in Africa HIV/AIDS primarily affects the most productive segment of society - people between the ages of 15 and 50 - so it sidelines millions who would otherwise be working to provide for themselves and their families. Those who are able have to work extra hard to provide food and water for their family and to ensure that the sick family member has adequate nutrition, medical care and support.

At the same time, lack of consistent quantities of nutritious food contributes to the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. People living with HIV are constantly fighting infection and have special nutritional needs. Food consumption has been found to drop by 40 percent in homes afflicted by HIV/AIDS₁. Without enough nutritious food, people with AIDS become susceptible to "opportunistic infections" and other illnesses that take advantage of a weakened immune system. This vicious cycle of poor nutrition, weakness and infection often leads to death.

The women and their families depicted are living with or are affected by HIV and AIDS.

They live in houses made of cardboard in shanty towns on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, the capitol of Ethiopia. Each family receives 150 Birr a month (about $14) from the Ethiopian Red Cross Society to buy food, over-the-counter medicines and other essentials. The government provides antiretroviral drugs, and caseworkers from a local non-profit organization, Mekdim HIV-AIDS Persons and Orphans National Association, help administer the aid.

Because of the stigma attached to HIV and AIDS in this part of the world, many family members will not visit HIV-positive relatives. Their caseworkers are often the only person making regular visits.

This program is one example of how Red Cross and Red Crescent societies partner with other agencies to make a big impact, with little money, in the lives of people living with HIV and AIDS. Through this assistance, the challenges of daily living, like putting food on the table, are lessened. To learn more about how Action for Africa is helping those with HIV/AIDS, see HIV/AIDS Fact Sheet.