. Ripple Effect Images: Annie Griffiths  Leila Hishmeh  Lynsey Addario  Michael Davie  Lynn Johnson  Barbara Kingsolver  Ami Vitale email In the most desperate areas around the world, where environmental changes have added to the heavy burden of women and children, Ripple Effect Images' partners are there to dig a new well, provide seeds for the next harvest, inoculate the weak, or help them to deal with the crushing effects of climate change. Ripple Effect Images documents both the challenges and the innovative programs that are empowering these women. We then make the images and stories available to our partners, at no cost, so that they can raise awareness and the funds that allow them to perform their life-saving work. We also provide our images to policy makers who are working to direct climate change dollars toward the programs that help women and girls.  Ripple is currently working with the United States State Department, USAID, The UN Foundation and other agencies and foundations. Ripple Effect Images' extraordinary team of journalists includes a MacArthur Genius fellow, Pulitzer Prize and National Humanities Medal winners, and an Emmy Award winning filmmaker. It would be cost-prohibitive for every one of our potential partners to engage world-class photographers and videographers to document the situation of women and children in the most severely affected areas of the world, and the programs that are helping them. By sending just one or two professionals to these regions and then making their work available to all of our partners, we reduce each partner's costs substantially and allow them to dedicate a greater portion of their resources to helping our shared client base of women and children. Young girls beaming at a school in Gugarat, India.  Globally, girls who get a primary education marry an average of four years later, and have 2.2 fewer children.  Photo: Ami Vitale Bangladesh is a country of seasonal rains, but climate change has caused more powerful storms that arrive year round, causing the low areas of the country to literally fall into the sea.  Approximately 10 million people live in parts of Bangladesh lying less than a meter above current sea levels.  Photo: Ami Vitale A woman uses an open cookstove in rural India. Three billion people use inefficient stoves to cook their daily meals. Fueled by wood, coal, or dung, these traditional cookstoves or open fires produce smoke that causes 1.9 million deaths each year, with women and young children the most affected.  Photo: Ami Vitale Annual droughts in Kenya have put tremendous pressure on women and girls, who must search further and further for water.  In some regions, they spend 10 hours every day, hauling dreadful water.  Teaching women and girls how to build sustainable water sources that last through seasonal droughts frees them from this daily torture, and allows them to start a small business or go to school.  Photo: Ami Vitale In remote parts of the world, basic healthcare is non-existent.  Women and infants are particularly at risk as they navigate any complication during pregnancy or delivery.  Mobile clinics and education about hygiene, anatomy and midwifery are making a huge difference in bringing down maternal and infant mortality.  Photo: Ami Vitale Elderly women express their relief after their homes are saved from treacherous flooding that destroyed thousands of fields and towns in Cambodia.  Photo: Annie Griffiths Women in a remote region of Rajasthan receive solar lanterns, bringing artificial light into their lives for the first time.  Solar lanterns are a sustainable, portable solution in regions without access to power.  These lanterns extend a woman's day so that she can be both productive and safe after the sun goes down.  Photo: Annie Griffiths Young Indian girls who work in salt mines experience a variety of illnesses due to heat and exposure.  Aid organizations are helping these children with health issues, and are helping more than 70,000 get their education at night schools, using solar lanterns.  Photo: Annie Griffiths A salt worker is seen through the door of her new tent which protects this saltworking family from blistering sun and devastating winds.  Photo: Annie Griffiths In the Nyando region of Kenya, a woman spends morning hours with her brows baking in the sun and her feet in the mud of a drainage ditch. As a part of a local disaster management group, they are clearing mud and waste of all varieties from the trenches that line roads and fields in the area. Such efforts decrease the impact of flooding, saving crops and homes. The work has made it possible for her to provide a better life for her six kids. Photo: Lynn Johnson Parched but not barren, the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, India is the most populated desert on earth. Locals have always prayed for water to save their marginal crops and the cattle that is their wealth. Though some area water sources may have a natural supply part of the year, June through September are months of hardship. Women must walk many hours to carry water or dig in the ground to find it. Drought has plagued this area for 43 of the past 50 years.  Photo: Lynn Johnson Girls attending a primary school in Kenya study agriculture and power of plants in the community and global environment.  They learn that the value of a tree is not just for firewood or home building, but also for cleaning the air, reducing soil erosion and building a sense of community values.  Photo: Lynn Johnson Women struggle against a brutal sandstorm in Chad, where climate change has lengthened droughts and forced millions to become climate refugees.  Innovative and sustainable water and food solutions are key to stopping this mass migration to urban areas.  Photo: Lynsey Addario MAY 2013 BACK ISSUE Back to current issue