Project Harar: Rebuilding Faces in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is home to about 90 million people, 85 percent of whom live in rural and remote areas. Africa's oldest independent country, Ethiopia is one of the poorest nations in the world. Young children are deprived of adequate food, water, and medicine; as a result, one in six children die before their fifth birthday. In rural areas, there is only one doctor for every 70,000 people. Moreover, the average annual income of a rural farmer makes it impossible for them to access health care. This leads to many complex conditions like facial disabilities being left untreated.

More than ten years ago, Jonathan Crown was traveling across east Africa on a photographic journey and he ended up in the town of Harar in Ethiopia. While out on the streets around a market one afternoon, Crown was approached by a beggar who wore a veil to hide his missing right cheek and nose. The next morning, he met another street boy with terrible head injuries. In April 2001, Crown started Project Harar to help Ethiopian children like Jemal and Fhami gain access to the medical treatment they so desperately need.

Since then, Project Harar has helped countless young people receive treatment for various facial disabilities such as cleft lip, cleft palate, noma, tumors, and animal attacks. Based in Hampstead, England, the organization works in poor, rural areas in Ethiopia to raise awareness of the treatment available for facial disabilities. Project Harar's Ethiopian employees liaise with local health officials, community leaders, and social workers to find people living with facial disabilities. Candidate patients are provided information sheets and photographic processing to help them make an informed choice, and if they decide to have treatment, Project Harar arranges free transport and accommodation in the capital city of Addis Ababa. After patients return to their villages, Project Harar monitors their progress to ensure they develop healthy and fulfilling lives.