A girl from rural Tarkeka in South Sudan. Their village burned down in conflict over resources, and they lost everything they had, including food stores, huts that sheltered them and crops. The fires were disastrous to their livelihoods. The girl had been eating boiled grass from the bush before our project teams delivered emergency food, seed and shelter to help families start over. Sustainable travel means engagement and exchange. We were there to help restart farming and to see what else we could do to help, but we left with a better understanding of people who are a lot like us. They are families just trying to get by. That exchange in human understanding can happen in interviews, and in this case, a photograph, where two people can see eye-to-eye, even for a moment.

To capture this moment, I was on assignment as a field journalist for Islamic Relief USA, a humanitarian relief organization that has done extensive work throughout East Africa. In the Tarkeka region, I was helping to document the effects of the conflict and the lack of infrastructure. I accompanied programs staff to determine how impactful IRUSA relief efforts had been for residents of remote villages like the one photographed.