brettmorton.com

Brett Morton is a photographer/designer from Montana, currently based in East Africa, where he works primarily for International NGOs and UN organizations.

With extensive field experience in northern Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda and Kenya, Brett aims to capture the subtle realities within diverse and often challenging emergency and development situations. Brett believes images will shape our future, but maintains that these images are not worth sacrificing humanity to obtain.

Pader District, Uganda, 2007. A woman returns from a day of work in the field to the Pajule IDP camp.

During the height of displacement more than 2 million people were displaced into Internally Displaced Persons Camps as part of a governmental attempt to fight the Lord's Resistance Army. Squalid conditions within the camp and a lack of access to the farmlands on which the vast majority of the displaced relied on resulted in tremendous poverty and health concerns.

Caption

Left: A woman travels to Opit, Gulu District, Uganda. 2008

Right: The suburbs of Opit, Gulu District, Uganda. 2009.

After two decades of conflict the nearly 2 million IDPs in northern Uganda began the process of moving home in 2006. With a staggering lack of infrastructure in return areas and extreme poverty resulting from the lack of income generating opportunities within the camps, the process of recovery is still very much ongoing in the Acholi sub-region.

Caption

A 14-year-old patient at the Gulu Regional Orthopedic Workshop learns to walk again using the custom fitted calipers supplied by the Workshop. Abducted, beaten and abandoned by the LRA rebels, the boy was left paralyzed from the waist down.

Conflict has been a major driver of poverty and disability in northern Uganda. Injuries from gunshots, burnings, mutilations and landmines along with a lack of access to health services and nutritional deficiencies related to displacement have all contributed to the increased rates of disability amongst people in northern Uganda. A review of hospital records from northern Uganda over the past 10 years shows that war related trauma is the main cause of injury and physical disability in the region, accounting for 20% of all injuries in northern Uganda.

Caption

Isohe, Eastern Equatoria, South Sudan, 2007. A woman makes her way back to Isohe after washing clothes in a nearby stream.

Upon the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement in 2005 between the Khartoum government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) basic sovereignty was granted to the South, and more than half a million refugees in neighboring countries began to return. With the most stable peace experienced in decades, South Sudan is building itself anew.

Caption

Kitgum, Uganda, 2007.

Caption

Lacektar, Pader District, Uganda, 2007. A resident of the Lacektar Return Site takes a break to examine the construction of his new home. Prior to moving out of the IDP Camp residents of return areas such as this one were required to clear land, rebuild homes and plant crops.

After two decades of conflict the nearly 2 million IDPs in northern Uganda began the process of moving home in 2006. With a staggering lack of infrastructure in return areas and extreme poverty resulting from the lack of income generating opportunities within the camps, the process of recovery is still ongoing in the Acholi sub-region.

Caption

The median age of the population in Acholiland is only 14 years; the future depends heavily on the education of these youth. With a lack of teachers, classrooms, desks and books, many return areas are making due with whatever they have. Using the shade of a tree as a classroom, or sitting on the floor of an empty room is common, with classes going on despite the conditions.

Caption

Primary School, Opit, Gulu District.

The median age of the population in Acholiland is only 14 years; the future depends heavily on the education of these youth. With a lack of teachers, classrooms, desks and books, many return areas are making due with whatever they have. Using the shade of a tree as a classroom, or sitting on the floor of an empty room is common, with classes going on despite the conditions.

Caption

Isohe, South Sudan, 2008.

Left: A boy receives treatment for malaria at the Isohe Health Center.

Right: During AVSI's 2004 assessment only half of the villages surveyed had access to safe drinking water, while none of the villages had access to the Sphere Standard 15 liters per-person-per-day. Access to safe drinking water can be a catalyst to improving entire ways of life, and is a fundamental need upon which other development can be based.

Upon the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement in 2005 between the Khartoum government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) basic sovereignty was granted to the South, and more than half a million refugees in neighboring countries began to return. With the most stable peace experienced in decades, South Sudan is building itself anew.

Caption

Acholibur IDP Camp, Pader District, 2008. A Camp Cleanup Committee demolishes abandoned huts in order to clear land as families moved away from the camp.

After two decades of conflict the nearly 2 million IDPs in northern Uganda began the process of moving home in 2006. With a staggering lack of infrastructure in return areas and extreme poverty resulting from the lack of income generating opportunities within the camps, the process of recovery is still very much ongoing in the Acholi sub-region.

Caption

Namokora, Kitgum District, Uganda, 2007. John Holmes, UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs.

“The security situation in conflict-ravaged Northern Uganda has clearly improved, beyond all recognition”, Holmes stated in his visit to observe the nature of change in the areas affected by the conflict in northern Uganda. "The fact that people are starting to go home is very good news”.

After two decades of conflict the nearly 2 million IDPs in northern Uganda began the process of moving home in 2006. With a staggering lack of infrastructure in return areas and extreme poverty resulting from the lack of income generating opportunities within the camps, the process of recovery is still ongoing in the Acholi sub-region.

Caption

Left: Omiya Anyima, Kitgum District, Uganda, 2007.

Right: Nakaseke Secondary School, Uganda, 2010.

Caption

Pader, Uganda, 2007. A resident of the Pader IDP Camp harvests gnuts in a rented field nearby Camp. Without access to familial land, many IDPs were forced to rent land close closer to Camp in order to harvest crops.

After two decades of conflict the nearly 2 million IDPs in northern Uganda began the process of moving home in 2006. With a staggering lack of infrastructure in return areas and extreme poverty resulting from the lack of income generating opportunities within the camps, the process of recovery is still ongoing in the Acholi sub-region.

Caption

Isohe, South Sudan, 2007.

Upon the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement in 2005 between the Khartoum government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) basic sovereignty was granted to the South, and more than half a million refugees in neighboring countries began to return. With the most stable peace experienced in decades, South Sudan is building itself anew.

Caption

Namokora Nursery School, Kitgum District, 2008.

The median age of the population in Acholiland is only 14 years; the future depends heavily on the education of these youth. With a lack of teachers, classrooms, desks and books, many return areas are making due with whatever they have. Using the shade of a tree as a classroom, or sitting on the floor of an empty room is common, with classes going on despite the conditions.

Caption

Left: Lacor Hospital in Gulu, Uganda. Auma awaits surgery to repair burn damage to her face sustained during an LRA attack on her village in Gulu district.

Right: Auma rests in the recovery room following surgery.

Conflict has been a major driver of poverty and disability in northern Uganda. Injuries from gunshots, burnings, mutilations and landmines along with a lack of access to health services and nutritional deficiencies related to displacement have all contributed to the increased rates of disability amongst people in northern Uganda. A review of hospital records from northern Uganda over the past 10 years shows that war related trauma is the main cause of injury and physical disability in the region, accounting for 20% of all injuries in northern Uganda.

Caption

Lacor Hospital, Gulu, Uganda, 2008. Candidates for surgery to repair conflict-related injuries examine the x-ray of a man with a bullet fragment remaining in his arm.

Conflict has been a major driver of poverty and disability in northern Uganda. Injuries from gunshots, burnings, mutilations and landmines along with a lack of access to health services and nutritional deficiencies related to displacement have all contributed to the increased rates of disability amongst people in northern Uganda. A review of hospital records from northern Uganda over the past 10 years shows that war related trauma is the main cause of injury and physical disability in the region, accounting for 20% of all injuries in northern Uganda.

Caption

Left: Isohe Health Center, South Sudan, 2008. Speared during a a local conflict, a 13-year-old boy has his wound cleaned by a nurse at Isohe Health Center.

Right: Isohe, South Sudan, 2008.

Upon the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement in 2005 between the Khartoum government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) basic sovereignty was granted to the South, and more than half a million refugees in neighboring countries began to return. With the most stable peace experienced in decades, South Sudan is building itself anew.

Caption

A girl grinds sorghum into flour in Iketek Village, South Sudan, 2008.

Upon the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement in 2005 between the Khartoum government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) basic sovereignty was granted to the South, and more than half a million refugees in neighboring countries began to return. With the most stable peace experienced in decades, South Sudan is building itself anew.

Caption

Isohe Health Center, South Sudan, 2008.

Upon the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement in 2005 between the Khartoum government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) basic sovereignty was granted to the South, and more than half a million refugees in neighboring countries began to return. With the most stable peace experienced in decades, South Sudan is building itself anew.

Caption