“Need” – some people need what is obvious: food and shelter. This baby girl is under-nourished. The home she shares with mother and brother is a hut, with holes that let the rain in. There is no indoor plumbing. No running water. No cooking facilities. Their hope for survival comes from begging from others who have little more. The mother probably trades food for sex and probably is not mentally stable. But then who would be under the circumstances?

The family lives on a Batey in the Dominican Republic. These are the huts, and cinder block houses where the sugar cane cutters and their families live. Most of the cane workers are Haitian for whom this represents a slightly better life. Their need? To be seen by the world. To have people know that they exist, that they are not so lost that no one will ever find them. Beyond or above that? Enough food, clean water and shelter without holes. And an education for their children, and a way out of the cycle of extreme poverty. Something that says
there is an end to this cycle somewhere.

TIP? My tip is to keep one′s eyes and heart open. Photographs often happen where the heart leads you. Don′t take the picture. Make the picture in tandem with the subject. Be aware of what life the other person is living and how you are living and what are those differences. Don′t mistake simple for uninformed.

www.bateyrelief.org