Olivia Arthur | Making Ground Esther Ariao washes beans for a meal. Baby Martha was born in late 2008. “It was a good birth. After resting for an hour I bathed Martha, my husband fetched the water and I had to get strength to b (...)
athe her. There is a bathroom in the hospital so I was able to wash myself. Because of the breastfeeding I do eat more – I eat a lot! I like eating greens with atapa (local bread) – lots of greens!” Uganda. 2009. © Olivia Arthur | Magnum Photos
Olivia Arthur | Making Ground During and after the fighting in 2003 there was an influx of people from the small villages around Amuria who moved into the town for safety. Many of these people stayed after the situation calmed (...)
down as their homes and livelihoods were destroyed, or their spouses killed. These people now live for free on ground donated by the hospital. WaterAid has been working to improve their living conditions with water, sanitation and improved hygiene. Here a resident rests under their new drying rack after sweeping and washing up. Amuria, Uganda. 2009. © Olivia Arthur | Magnum Photos
Olivia Arthur | Making Ground Stella Numa, 30, is a seamstress and runs one of the many businesses that have popped up along the main high street in Amuria. “I have had this business for two and a half years. I’m from Katakwi, (...)
I moved here because I have a lot of different relatives including my father here. I have many reasons to like it here, firstly because in my area we have a lot of problems with the Karamajong. Because of the LRA many people went to Katakwi, but once they were chased away people went back here to Amuria, so there are many people here. Business is busy at special times like Christmas, Easter or New Year as everyone wants new clothes.” Amuria, Uganda. 2009. © Olivia Arthur | Magnum Photos
Olivia Arthur | Making Ground In Amuria, WaterAid has helped the community to build this water tower. Water is pumped to the tower and then gravity does the rest of the work – allowing water to flow to the surrounding taps. It’ (...)
s a cheap, sustainable and simple solution to provide water to a large area and number of people. Amuria, Uganda. 2009. © Olivia Arthur | Magnum Photos
Olivia Arthur | Making Ground Mid-morning tea in Amuria’s central café. Due to the increased population; cafés, bars and eating houses have been thriving. This café is the most popular in town due to their excellent bean stew a (...)
nd posho, a local maize. Amuria, Uganda. 2009. © Olivia Arthur | Magnum Photos
Olivia Arthur | Making Ground John Ezekial Mahaue building his latrine. “We’re building a latrine. Before, in the rainy season, we used to wait until the rains stopped so we didn’t get wet. We put bags up as doors to try and cr (...)
eate privacy, but this is a better way. I’m a leader in the village, so I decided to build bricks first for my own latrine so that others would follow suit. I think people will follow my example.” Chigongwe/Michese, Tanzania. 2009. © Olivia Arthur | Magnum Photos
Olivia Arthur | Making Ground An abattoir worker fetches water from a dirty stream to clean the meat. This was the only water source, making it impossible to keep conditions sanitary. Now that Amuria has running water, a new ab (...)
attoir is being built, cutting down the opportunity for disease to spread through contaminated meat. Amuria, Uganda. 2008. © Olivia Arthur | Magnum Photos
Olivia Arthur | Making Ground “This district has problems finding and keeping teachers. Some come and see that there is no water and electricity, they come for one day and leave. Some children don’t come to school because they (...)
have to go and fetch water. There are less children here during the dry season for this reason. Three-quarters come late to school and sometimes they can’t come at all because they have to fetch water. This can take five to six hours sometimes. If the children are thirsty they have to leave class to get water or just wait until later. Their concentration is bad though. Sometimes the latrines are so dirty the children go in the ground around the school. I go and fetch water at 2 or 3am in the morning and wait for hours, sometimes I am also late. I’m not from this region – I am from the south of Tanzania, the government sent me here, I had no choice.” Naomi Chitambi, who left the school as the living conditions were too tough for her to continue to work. Michese/Chigongwe, Tanzania. 2008. © Olivia Arthur | Magnum Photos
Olivia Arthur | Making Ground “I lost my leg to a lion in 1956. I was grazing my sheep and cattle on the hill when a lion came and took one of my sheep. I tried to scare him away but it didn’t work. The next day he came back to (...)
take more animals. This time I fought him and tried to scare him away; I was using my panga and arrows but it wasn’t working. He started to attack me, people from the village heard me shouting and came running to help. They managed to kill the lion but by then he had already mauled my leg. As he was dying he bit one last time very badly on my knee. I went to the hospital but my leg was too badly damaged to save so they decided to amputate it. My neighbors help me fetch water.” Bartholemew Mtelia, 78. Chigongwe, Tanzania. 2009. © Olivia Arthur | Magnum Photos