Emily is a nomadic MERU tribeswoman from the desolate, arid desert lands of northern Kenya. I spent a few days with her family at her humble home, while on assignment to create a "Day in the Life" for The Paradigm Project. In Emily I found a strong, tireless and quietly driven woman who wakes up with the cooling of the earths surface, makes a raw wood fire to warm her daughter and her baby goat, while preparing a meagre meal of crusted break and chai for her son before he goes to school. At dawn she tends her sheep, hauls more wood on her bare back from miles away from home, searches for precious water supplies, tries to save a few garden plants from the scorching sun, and is doing everything she can to make sure her children are getting well schooled. While most of us will never suffer the effects of a drought – an endless numbing drought that has dried up most of the open water sources for cattle and humans to drink for thousands of square miles, at 42, Emily's story of strife is commonplace.
"Emily's Story" Meru, Kenya
"She shares a daily struggle to survive with women across the globe yet you'll never see her cry. Never see her beg. Never see her complain. Instead she is strong, fiercely determined, full of dignity, yet even with so little for her and her children to eat, will open her humble home and extend her scarred hands to share with you what little she has..."
If you have time read the full story, it will give you a feeling of how one woman lives her life in the developing world - faced with so much hardship yet Emily never gives up.. because every single day demands a fight for survival in Kenya's arid lands, where ongoing drought brings suffering to everyone.
2 comments:
These are amazing pictures, is evocative. The sort of thing we see at the Photographer's Gallery London quite often. Top class.
MB.. I've just seen your comment Michael thank you.. see if I can broadcast more images sooner than later.
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