Millennium Villages Project (2015)

MVP public exhibition of Danny Wilcox Frazier's work in Leona, Senegal. The exhibition was made possible by the VII Foundation, Blue Chip Foundation, and United Photo Industries. © Danny Wilcox Frazier / VII

THE PROJECT

The Millennium Villages Project explored the UN Millennium Project initiated and run by Jeff Sachs and the Earth Institute at Columbia University to embrace the Millennium Development goals and lift failing villages and hunger hotspots across Africa to reach sustainability. The VII Foundation’s contributing photographers reported on the five-year progress of the African villages within the program. The MVP photographs, video, and reporting were then published as a book by The VII Foundation.

With a principal view to educating and informing, The VII Foundation also curated a traveling exhibition to engage students across the United States. The multimedia exhibition was unusual in that the foundation bought and converted a US school bus that then traveled to prearranged school locations throughout the United States for interactive classroom lessons.

The traveling exhibit was part of an educational curriculum designed by our partnership with Generation Human Rights that teachers used for social studies programming. To date, over 15,000 students have interacted with the project. The exhibition was also seen in printed form at the United Nations in New York.

Raoda Mahamat N’Djamena. © Danny Wilcox Frazier / VII.

Flooding in Saint-Louis, Senegal.

Boys playing on dunes outside of Gabar, Senegal.

Zara Hassan, who saw three of her children going through malnutrition phases. Leaving her house, Zara picks up two 30-liter yellow jerrycans, which she ties on her donkey, heading to the nearest wadi, the only water source in the village, about one kilometers away.

Mamadou Diop (center) and his family harvest onions on Diop’s farm near Potou, Senegal. The farm was one of the pilot sites at the beginning of the Millennium Villages Project.

SENEGAL - “The Will to do More”

BY DANNY WILCOX FRAZIER

Farm fields in the dry zone near Leona, Senegal.

Madame Kasse, a midwife, with a newborn at the health clinic in Leona, Senegal.

Community health worker Penda Ba visits a family in Leona, Senegal.

Hawa Choukou Abakar, 50, is the Vice-President of the Kommoleh Group and has been fishing for 30 years. She is a recognized fisherman not only in Koudouboul but in all the nearby villages.

RWANDA - “Breaking the Poverty Trap”

BY GARY KNIGHT & FIONA TURNER

RWANDA - “We are the Bosses”

BY GARY KNIGHT & FIONA TURNER

Girls in the village of Yakoua, Chad after a community awareness session with Youssouf Mbodou Mbami, the chief of the Canton of Bol.

A mother nursing her baby outside of Zeneba Abakar house in Tagal village, Chad.

Mamadou Diop and one of his sons work fields at Diop’s second farm in the Potou region of Senegal.

The dry zone near Leona, Senegal.

Father and son on the way to Tagal village from Bol, Lake Chad.

GHANA - “All Fronts Forward”

BY ED KASHI

Zara Hassan with her five children. Zara saw three of her children go through phases of malnutrition.

Community health worker Seynabou Ndiaye visits families in Leona, Senegal.

ETHIOPIA - “Together”

BY RON HAVIV

Friendship Hospital’s therapeutic nutrition unit (TNU), supported by the NGO Alima and its local partner, Alerte Santé (Heath Alert), sees hundreds of severely malnourished children daily in Chad’s capital city, N’Djamena.

Streets of Mao, Chad.

Streets of Mao, Chad at sunset.

An attendant is photographed while working at a Raceway gas station in Green Brook, N.J. on March 27, 2016. © Ed Kashi / VII.

The Newest Americans (2013)

The Newest Americans is a multimedia collaboration between journalists, media-makers, artists, faculty, and students that tell the stories from the most diverse university in the nation, Newark, NJ.

Mother Masibiry Koné, 34, holds her daughter Malado Diarra, 16 days old, at the community health center of Koumatou, Mali on 8 March 2018. Malado was born without complications and is still in good health. Her youngest sibling contracted malaria as a toddler, but thanks to the clean water and hygiene trainings provided by UNICEF, she’s less at risk of getting this dangerous disease. In Mali, the neonatal mortality rate is 31 per 1,000 live births (2016, IGME data). Sikasso region has a neonatal mortality rate of 35 per 1,000 live births – slightly above the national average. Most newborns die from perinatal asphyxia, neonatal infections or prematurity. These deaths are largely preventable. UNICEF became active in Mali in 1986, but still faces steep challenges – specifically, the ratio of qualified health personnel per inhabitant is too low. In Koumantou, for example, there is only one doctor, trained by UNICEF, to serve the entire population. One midwife, one nurse, three health workers and two vaccination agents assist him. In addition, Mali has one of the world’s highest child marriage rates. Around one in seven girls marries before the age of 15, and 71 per cent by 18. Also, 91 per cent of women aged 15–49 is circumcised, increasing the risk of deadly infections – most of them before the girls reach the age of 5. Child mothers’ babies are more vulnerable: If a mother is under 18, her baby is more than twice as likely to die than an infant born to an adult mother (older than 19). But thanks to UNICEF interventions, most recently, many lives have been saved – in Koumantou and Bougouni, neonatal mortality numbers have gone down. © Ilvy Njiokiktjien / VII.

UNICEF: Child Survival Campaign "Newborn Project" (2018-2019)

In 2018, VII Photo collaborated with UNICEF on its Child Survival Campaign to raise awareness about the million babies who die on their very first day despite the existence of simple solutions that can save them.