Detail from a Fante Fishing Boat, Robertsport, Liberia

Liberian is a coastal state, with the majority of its population living close to the Atlantic Ocean. Fishing is an important to the country. The domestic fishing industry is dominated by small scale fishing from narrow wooden boats (such as the Fante boats pictured above), but further out to sea large and sophisticated fishing vessels (from East Asia states and elsewhere) practice industrial fishing methods. It is increasingly important to the welfare of global fish stocks that poor African states such as Liberia find the means to sustainably manage fisheries in their territorial waters.

Atlantic Ocean, Robertsport, Liberia

Liberia has many miles of beautiful shoreline and warm seas that are wonderful for swimming and surfing. Despite this, the country has almost no tourist infrastructure. Just a few years out of a long and devastating civil war, the country is still a high-risk investment climate for even the hardiest investors, but access to scarce international capital will be essential if the country is to develop an internationally competitive tourism sector.

Smoking Bolling Fish, Fante Town, Robertsport, Liberia

The Fante, a people of south-western Ghana, fish and trade all along the West African coast from Nigeria to Sierra Leone. The Liberian town of Robertsport has a large Fante community, settled along the shoreline of the lagoon of Lake Piso. Here we see a smoking technique being used to preserve the bolling fish. Without treatment the fish will keep for just two days in the tropical heat, after treatment they can be still be eaten after 2 or 3 months.

Children Playing in Monrovia, Liberia

Everywhere you go in Liberia you see large numbers of children. Between 2005 and 2010 the UN estimates the country had the fastest growing population in the world (4.5%), with an average of 6.77 children born per woman. If this population growth rate were to be sustained over the entire period, the population would double every 16 years. It is clear that reducing population growth rates to a more sustainable level will be a very important challenge for Liberia over the coming years.

Africa Hotel, Monrovia, Liberia

Built to host the guests of the 1979 Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) meeting in Monrovia, the Africa Hotel was once one of the grandest hotels in West Africa, sited in a majestic location by the Atlantic it boasted luxury facilities, including an outdoor swimming pool modelled in the shape of the African continent. Thirty years on, the building stands as a desolate and entirely empty concrete hulk, the long years of civil war, stripping it of all its former glory.

Ten degrees north of the equator, Liberia enjoys warmth and sunshine when the United States and Europe experience the depth of their winter. With improvements in the security situation and basic infrastructure, it is hoped that one day Liberia will be able to revive its tourism industry.

Detail from a Mural, Unity Conference Centre, Monrovia, Liberia

The Unity Conference Centre is a monument to the noble, but now faded, dream of Pan-African Unity. The building was constructed at great cost by the government of William Tolbert, to host the 1979 Organisation of African Unity (OAU, a forerunner to the African Union) meeting. To many Liberians, the huge cost of the development (at a time when most Liberians were experiencing serious hardship) was another yet sign of how out of touch the ‘Americo-Liberian’ ruling elite had become. The following year, a coup led by a military officer, Samuel Doe, swept the Tolbert administration from power, an event which precipitated the darkest period in Liberia’s history, over twenty years of grave instability, a period of civil war marked by the destruction of nearly all of Liberia’s infrastructure and episodes of unimaginable cruelty being inflicted upon an economically desperate civilian population. It was not until 2003, through the military intervention of ECOWAS and the introduction of UN peacekeeping forces, that peace gradually began to return to the country.

A young Rwandan teacher, Nyamata, Rwanda.

This young teacher had a difficult start to life in Burundi and Rwanda. Losing both her parents at a young age, she became the head of a child-headed household (some 40,000 child-headed families exist in Rwanda, due to the impact of the 1994 genocide and HIV). She came to the attention of the UK charity, Hope and Homes for Children, who provided her with a variety of emotional and practical support to enable her to realise her goal of becoming a teacher. Today, she is living an independent and successful life and very much enjoying her new job working as a local primary school teacher.

From a set of pro bono photography I did for Hope and Homes for Children, Rwanda. The charity’s mission is “to give hope to the poorest children in the world – those who are orphaned, abandoned or vulnerable – by enabling them to grow up within the love of a family and the security of a home, so that they can fulfil their potential”.

Pyrethrum growing on the lower slopes of Mount Bisoke.

Pyrethrum is a plant in the same genus as the daisy and is cultivated for its flowers. The flower heads contain compounds called pyrethrins, a naturally evolved insect defence which attack the nervous systems of all insects (including mosquitoes). Pyrethrins are regarded as the some of the safest insecticides available, as unlike many man-made pesticides, they rapidly biodegrade rather than accumulating in the tissue of mammals. Pyrethrum is an increasingly important export crop for Rwanda, and new techniques to improve the yield and quality of the crop are continually being tested.

From a set of pro bono photography I did for SPREAD, Rwanda. This USAID funded organisation works to enhance rural enterprise and agribusiness development, assisting Rwanda in deriving as much value from its agricultural produce as possible through the provision of technical assistance.

Elizabeth Dearborn Davis, Co-Founder and CEO of The Akilah Institute for Women, Kigali, Rwanda

Elizabeth Dearborn Davis has been the driving force behind the establishment of ‘The Akilah Institute’, Rwanda’s first vocational training and leadership institute for women. She has been in Rwanda for several years working on projects concerning post-conflict reconciliation and human rights advocacy. In 2007, she founded a nonprofit organization in the United States to provide scholarships to street children in Rwanda, support an orphanage in Kigali, and organize reconciliation and conflict resolution conferences for genocide survivors and high school students. In 2008, she was selected as a StartingBloc fellow and recently received the Woman of Peace award from the Women’s Peace Power Foundation.

From a set of pro bono photography I did for Project Akilah, Rwanda. An organisation whose mission is “to transform the lives of young women by empowering them with the skills and knowledge to find meaningful employment and to overcome poverty”.

Rukeni Swamp Tea Plantation, Sorwathe Tea Estate, Kinihira, Rwanda

Tea is one of Rwanda’s principal export crops. Tea is grown at high altitude (between 1,900 and 2,500 m) and also in well drained marshes (such as the Rukeni Swamp plantation, pictured above) at an altitude of between 1,550 and 1,800m. The major producing areas are Byumba, Cyangugu, Gikongoro, Gisenyi, and Kibuye. Tea plantations must be located very near to a tea factory because the harvest has to be processed within just a few hours of picking.