New work for WFP, OCHA & UN: Ethiopian refugees in Sudan

When I was in Sudan, I had the privilege of working on an assignment for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize-winners: the World Food Programme. WFP commissioned 32 pictures that I have taken in refugee camps Village 8 and Um-Rakoba.

The United Nations has used some of the images on their UN News channel and OCHA daily briefings, which you can see below. More pictures taken in Sudan can be seen on the website of the World Food Programme and on the website of British newspaper The Independent.

WFP / Arete / Joost Bastmeijer

New work: reporting on the Tigray conflict for The Telegraph

Fleeing the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, tens of thousands of people walked days to get to neighboring Sudan, where they are staying in crowded refugee settlements. On assignment for British newspaper The Telegraph, I traveled with Africa correspondents Saskia Houttuin and Will Brown to eastern Sudan, where we were some of the first journalists to talk to refugees.

The Tigrayans told us horrifying stories, about indiscriminate bombings, machete attacks, decapitations and executions. But it’s hard to check if their stories are true, as in Tigray, the electricity and communication services have been cut off for weeks. On top of that, journalists are not allowed to enter the region to do their work independently. And so the only way to get an idea of what might have happened in Northern Ethiopia, is to talk to the many refugees that we found in the camps.

To read some of the stories that Will and Saskia wrote for their newspapers, click through the screenshots below. To read the story I wrote for Trouw’s De Verdieping segment, click here. To hear the radio interview I did for ‘Met Het Oog Op Morgen’, in conversation with Wilfried de Jong, click here. To hear the conversation I had in the ‘NOS Radio 1 Journaal’ with Jurgen van den Berg, together with Africa correspondent Bram Vermeulen, click play on the video underneath the newspaper clippings (or click here). To listen to NOS podcast ‘De Dag’ about the situation in the Sudanese camps, click play on the player below.

In addition to the work I did for The Telegraph, NOS and Trouw, I also worked for NGOs, who are working on the ground to help the Ethiopian refugees. To see some of the work I did for World Food Programme (WFP), click here. The photos I took for Save The Children can be seen here. To see the video interviews and pictures I created for Dutch refugee NGO Stichting Vluchteling, click here. And to see the pictures I took for ZOA, click here.

Samsam & Media: Simantoi (9) loves to listen to the radio

For the newest edition of Samsam Magazine, I interviewed Simantoi (9) from Maralal! As this edition’s theme of the magazine for schoolchildren in The Netherlands is ‘Media’, I asked Simantoi how she knows what’s going on in the world. She told me that because she is from Samburu, a region in Kenya, that she listens to radio a lot. Not only because they play songs in ‘Maa’, the language of her grandparents, but also because she likes to listen to radioshows about Samburu’s mythology.

“My favorite radio station is Serian FM,” Simantoi says. “They broadcast a lot of nice programmes, so I listen to them at least for an hour each day.” On Saturdays, the radio station makes a programma that like children’s magazine Samsam, is only meant for children. Children even come to the studio, which sits on one of Maralal’s hills. Together with Simantoi, I traveled to see Joseph and Nick, who explained us a bit more about the importance of radio in Samburu.

To read the whole piece (in Dutch), enlarge the picture below or follow this link to Samsam’s website.

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New work for The Guardian: Will Samburu's children go back to school?

I’m very happy to share that The Guardian published twelve pictures I took in Samburu, in the photo essay section of their website. The story that goes with all photographs, about worries over Samburu’s children who might not return to school as they are once again living a traditional way of life, was written by Saskia Houttuin.

See the whole photo essay here, on the website of The Guardian.

Click here to read more about our frontpage coverage about Samburu for NRC Handelsblad.

Elections in Ivory Coast: in photos

For almost a month, I’ve been taking pictures in Ivory Coast as the West-African country organized elections, which were boycotted by the two main opposition parties. In the slideshow below, you can find a selection of photographs.

Interview 'De Buitenlandredactie': life as an Africa Correspondent

For foreign news journalism platform De Buitenlandredactie, Saskia Houttuin and I were interviewed about covering news events (like the elections in Ivory Coast) in Africa.

“During the elections in America you can see that just about any former America correspondent is traveling across the US once more, to make special reports or programmes there. So there are many possibilities to make some good, substantive and in-depth stories there. Why isn't that happening in Africa?

This year there are no fewer than thirteen African countries that hold elections, but in my opinion you read far too little about them in the Dutch media. What is happening in African countries at this moment is incredibly important for the future of a European country like the Netherlands.”

Read the whole interview here.

Pre-election coverage for Trouw, RTL Nieuws: Ivory Coast

“Ivory Coast is divided,” says Judicaël Yao (who wears a black cap), the coordinator for RHDP Yamoussoukro. “But even about Jesus Christ, people were not unanimous.” Judicaël's party leader and current president Alassane Ouattara decided to run for a third term, but opposition leaders say that this decision is unconstitutional. And so the opposition has urged voters to boycot the elections of upcoming Saturday.

In Ivory Coast’s capital Yamoussoukro, followers of Ouattara aren’t bothered by the claims of the opposition, as they put up posters of Ouattara as if the elections are running in a normal fashion. “Today, we believe that for the majority of Ivorians, those who want the happiness of our people, president Ouattara is the man who is needed,” Judicaël says. "In nine years, he has transformed Ivory Coast.” Ouattara has been praised for Ivory Coast’s economic growth: the average gross domestic product has grown around 8% per year since he came to power in 2011.

Still, Ivory Coast is on edge, and tensions are high. Fears of instability in the country rise, as electoral violence has already led to sixteen deaths in Abou, a commercial district 50 kilometers from Abidjan. The memories of post-election violence in 2010 and 2011, that killed some 3,000 people, are still fresh.

To learn about the elections, check out our reportage for RTL Nieuws or read Saskia Houttuin’s article for Dutch daily Trouw. To see some additional photography and reporting for VPRO, click here.

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New work for VPRO, NRC Handelsblad & The Guardian

When Covid-19 cases surged and the Kenyan government put hefty measures in place, hundreds of Samburu people got together for an event that only takes place once every fifteen years. In a lengthy ceremony, they circumcised their boys, turning them into ‘morans’. Now, six months later, these morans (meaning warriors) have been roaming around Samburu freely with their cattle. And many of them are not looking to return to school.

For VPRO’s Bureau Buitenland, NRC Handelsblad and The Guardian, I traveled to Samburu with Koert Lindijer and Saskia Houttuin. Together, we worked on a story about the impact of school closures in this northwestern region of Kenya. Government officials fear that a whole generation is lost.

“Nobody was prepared for what was going to happen,” says Jane Mutua, head of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in Samburu, which operates under the national government. “Everybody thought we were going to close for maybe a month or two. But now it’s already happening – education got out of their minds.”

Not only has the closure of schools meant that boys will not go back to school, also girls might not return. Nabulu, for instance, got pregnant after she had sex with her boyfriend. When her father learned of his daughter’s pregnancy, he wanted her to undergo FGM (female circumcision). “When I refused, he started beating me and my mum.” She now lives in the town of Wamba with her mother, in hiding from her father. Most pregnant girls will not return to school.

In the small town of Resim, the school expects that out of 110 pupils, 20 will drop out. After consulting elders and teachers, the Teachers Service Commission anticipates even higher rates throughout Samburu county: “If we can salvage three quarters of every class, I think we’ll have gone a long way,” says Jane Mutua, while recognizing that her estimate is optimistic. “I am hoping that I will be right. If we don’t land on the sun, we can land on the moon.”

To read the whole frontpage piece by Koert Lindijer (which was also featured by De Standaard, as well on their frontpage), click here. To watch the video I made for Saskia Houttuin’s radio report for VPRO Bureau Buitenland, click below. An English story by Saskia Houttuin will be published by The Guardian soon.

New work for Hivos: renewable energy businesses

New work for Hivos and their ENERGIA program, for which they are engaging women in starting renewable energy businesses. Providing access to energy in remote areas in western Kenya, they claim, should decrease poverty and improve economic and human development. In the slideshow above, you can see some pictures I took of Joyce, Beatrice, Ruth, Adelaide, Everlyne, Mauline and Anjeline in their shops, where they sell charcoal briquettes, cookstoves and solar lights.

Tills (14) fell pregnant after her school closed: a reportage for RTL Nieuws

Kenya’s schools have been closed for over six months. And so Tills, who is fourteen years old and lives with her mother in Nairobi’s informal settlement Korogocho, has had a lot of time on her hands. She frequently met up with friends when her mother was working, and had sex with a boy who was a bit older than her. He told her that she wouldn’t get pregnant from sleeping with him once, but he turned out to be wrong. When neighbors saw her body changing, they were afraid that Tills would abort the unborn child, and so they brought her to the police station. That’s how Tills’ mother found out her daughter had fallen pregnant. Even though her mom will be the one who will take care of the baby, Tills will not go back to school, as teenage pregnancies are stigmatized.

See Saskia Houttuin’s report I filmed for RTL Nieuws below:

On assignment for newspaper Trouw: Kenyan teachers become farmers to beat Covid unemployment

On my first assignment for Dutch newspaper Trouw, I traveled to ‘Vicodec’, a school in Kenya’s Ongata Rongai. Here, the teachers have picked up farming as they are out of work - because of Covid, schools are closed for the rest of the year. You can read the piece by Ilona Eveleens in full by following this link to the Trouw website.

In Kenya, schools are closed until January next year. The decision, made by the government as a measure to control the spread of Covid-19, proves to be a large challenge for private schools. Where state-run schools still get funding to pay for rent and salary, private schools rely on fees paid by parents. And so many private schools are in financial trouble, sending their staff members on unpaid leave.

Just south of capital Nairobi, in a town called Ongata Rongai, the Victory Community Development Center used to offer education for around 560 children who mainly live in the informal settlement called Kware. But because of Covid-19, children are forced to stay home, and so the school had to get creative in order to survive. Classrooms were transformed into chicken coops, and the gymnastics field and playground have been plowed so that the teachers can grow crops and keep livestock. 

“We are getting some donations from Kenyans and a family in the US,” Vicodec’s head teacher Rose Charagu says, "but it’s not enough to pay our staff. With farming and keeping animals, we produce food to distribute to the community, as well as to generate at least some income.” And so the school's IT teacher and the hair & body care teacher work side by side on the land, while their colleagues care for chickens inside the school’s classrooms. 

“We try to adapt,” Charagu concludes, "to not just sit still and wait for January. We are in control of the situation now, that feels good.”

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New work for children's magazine Samsam; malaria and robots

For Dutch children’s magazine Samsam, I worked on two videos about malaria and robots. The small vids were recorded in Tanzania’s Dar Es Salaam and Stone Town and are made from a child’s perspective, as they are meant for a young audience in The Netherlands. Rukayya makes sure she doesn’t get stung by mosquitoes, as she doesn’t want to get malaria. And Christine tells me all about her love for robots and drones.

Samsam’s Karin Wesselink edited both videos. For Christine’s story, I also wrote a small piece that was featured in Samsam’s ‘Robots’ edition. The videos can be watched through Samsam’s YouTube account.

Click here to read a previous Samsam story, about Swabir and Mombasa’s Fort Jesus.

'Pandemic': see some of my Covid-19 photos in Museum Hilversum

Below, you can see a selection of photographs I took in the coastal municipality of Bergen, when I had just arrived in The Netherlands a few months ago. Some of the images have been picked up by regional and national news media and are exhibited as part of the ‘Pandemic’ group exhibition in Museum Hilversum.

I’m also happy to share that the Regional Archive of Alkmaar has purchased twelve photographs, which will be a part of their 'corona collection'. On the photos above, you can how Covid-19 impacted daily life in the municipality. To read more about the photographs, check out my recent posts on Instagram.