Nigerian teenager setting out bed nets to ward off malaria carrying mosquitos. She is a volunteer health worker in her village, HIV positive and an orphan. A local program underwritten by the Catholic Church has empowered her to visit other AIDS orphans in her community to make sure they are feed and taken care of.

Women work a water pump in Southern Sudan. During times of peace they feel free to collect water in the later part of the day without the fear being attacked. Something that wasn't possible a few years before.

A returning war refugee to southern Sudan is trying to build up the life she had before fleeing the violence. She and her husband are slashing and burning to clear space for growing sweet potatoes on their small plot of land..

This Masai woman works with her husband and young children to build up their lives by buying up and farming nearly by lands. Both have HIV but with ongoing treatment, they can continue to provide for their families. She is gathering stalks from harvested fields in Tanzania. With the extra money they make from the land they are building onto their house.

Young girl helps her father clean up thieir yard in Malawi. Her family lives in extreme poverty but a local program is helping them increase their food production so they can feed themselves and donate food to their neighors.

Woman clearing land for planting peas and cassava in Sierra Leone. She will beginning planting in a few weeks.

Breaking up rocks at a quarry in Tanzania. This is a family operations where everyone, including the wife helps to make gravel used for contraction of houses. She and her husband are part of a new program encouraging husbands and wives to speak with each other and plan out their future together.

Women farmers learning agricultural techniques in Sierra Leone. They are learning how to better work the soil and increase their yield. The money from crop sales is used to send their children to school.

Teenage girls in a Nigerian village applying makeup and combing hair before heading off to the market. Both are OVC, Orphans and Vulnerable Children, living with relatives and being helped by a local organization to strengthen their confidence and enable them to confidently interact with the community..

Tradiitional midwives hold a baby delivered by a nurse using only the light of a battery operated lantern in rural Sierra Leone. The placement of traditional midwives along side nurses in rural clinics has improved the mortality rate of mothers and their babies even in the most remote locations.

Screening babies at a health outpost in Sierra Leone to check on nutrition levels and determine if intervention is needed. This mother just had a healthy birth because her sister brought her to the clinic where midwives work along side the nurses to ensure the safety of the women and their newborns

Healthy toddler and her mother at vocational training center in South Sudan. A local NGO working with the government set up a day care center inside a vocational training school so mothers are free to learn new job skills.

Young HIV positive mother in Nigeria with her 7 month old baby. She is a drug compliance officer at the local hospital, working with AiDS patients. She only recently found out she is also infected. Her son is negative. Antiviral drugs will help her live long enough to see her son grow up.

A young teenage health worker in Nigerian village checking on children in their home. She is HIV positive and an orphan, but a local program empowered her to check on other orphans in her community to make sure they are receiving proper food and care.

A young girl in Malawi who is being cared for at the moment by a neighbor, her mother had to leave for weeks with her sick sibling. In areas of extreme poverty, child rearing has to be done by the entire village since there are no safety nets.

Children helping their mother carry supplies quite a distance through a forest to the community garden in Sierra Leone. They will remain there all day, cooking and eating their dinner while the mother and oldest child work in the fields.

Young boy helping his mother with washing in Sudan. Mothers training their sons to help with household chores will raise a more responsive future generation of men.

Schoolgirl running to class in Sudanese village. Educations is essential for both boys and girls in the newly emerged country of South Sudan. A local program also makes sure they are fed a meal and have clean water available to them via a pump on their school grounds.

Orphan girls playing soccer in a village in Malawi where they live in extreme poverty and the shadow of diseases like HIV.

Young girl carrying blackboard for outdoor school classes in Sudan. Tools for education are sparse and hard to find so even a simple blackboard must be locked up after class is over.

Sudanese girl carrying sweet potato roots to school to plant for contributions to future lunches. Families donate a part of their seed crop to the schools so the children can grow their lunches on the school grounds.

Elderly Sudanese woman in a village that has been helped with a water pump system, ensuring the women don't have to walk far to gather water.

Female community leader of Sudanese village on the Ugandan border. She works to ensure the villagers work cooperatively to better their communities.