Malawian, Richard Nyoni, captures the essence of our work in winning photographs.
Congratulations and thank you to Richard Nyoni, Julia De Bruyn and Marj Osburne. They are the three winners of our first ever ‘Chickens for Africa’ photography fundraising campaign. The judges made their selection based on visual aesthetic value, composition, technical excellence, artistic merit, and impact in the context of rural poultry development.
Left to Right: First place – Richard Nyoni who captured the essence of our work in Malawi. Second place – Julia de Bruyn who portrayed chicken keeping practices in Sanza village in Tanzania. Third place – Marj Osburne who set up a rather scholarly scene of her backyard chooks in Australia.
Another photograph entry by Richard Nyoni. Kate Chihana, Welusi Village, Malawi. Contact Richard at Ettaric Images @ richardnyoni09@gmail.com
The winner, Richard Nyoni, is a local agricultural project officer and budding professional photographer in Malawi. We were all impressed with his ability to capture the essence of our work through depicting the people at the heart of what we do so beautifully. He submitted several photographs of very high quality. Another contender for first place was a photograph of Kate Chihana, a 37 year old mother of 5 children from rural Malawi. Richard provided her story for us, which she has agreed to share. Life for people like Kate in rural areas living in poverty is difficult – a way of life that is faced by 70% of the population in this country (World Bank 2010). Poor roads, lack of reliable markets and climate change affecting agricultural output are some of the major challenges. Kate’s arm was amputated after she developed a serious medical complication when she was young, which has obviously made life even more challenging for her.
Kate and her husband engage in a number of small-scale trade and farming activities in order to make a living.
“Chickens are the only livestock that I rear” she says.
Chickens have had a positive impact on her livelihood. Ever since Kate started poultry farming, she has had access to protein-enriched meals, including eggs, which she also is able to sell. As one way of ensuring that her local chickens are not wiped out by Newcastle disease, she periodically vaccinates them.
“Without the vaccine, my chickens would have been wiped out. I am very grateful to the local vaccinators who come periodically and vaccinate my chickens. I am involved in a number of livelihood options. But chickens are dearest to me” she concluded.
The 2017 photography competition raised AUD 8830 for projects in Malawi and Mozambique, to help families have access to an appropriate locally made vaccination against Newcastle disease. We will use the money to train over 80 community based vaccinators. Based on past experience, we can be confident these vaccinators will reach at least 2,000 families and bring food security and increased income benefits to 10,000 people like Kate, simply through better control of Newcastle disease in village poultry at the local level.
Thanks so much to the judges, donators and other photograph submitters for supporting our first social media fundraising campaign. We look forward to updating you on the outcomes of the work that your support will allow us to facilitate.
