Photography : Mary Ellen Mark
Victims of famine



This 10-year old orphan at left, walked 20 miles from his village to a relief camp 250 miles. He has nothing to wear during the near-freezing nights at this altitude of 12,000 feet except a pair of shorts and his father’s only legacy, a tattered, filthy suit jacket. "

Starvation complicated by mumps and diarrhoea killed this four year old child, whose grieving parents say: "We also lost our younger child. Now we are finished."






In the tent the Ethiopians call the "die place," the body of a 28-year-old woman is washed for burial.



For the famine victims live outdoors, blankets and crevices in the parched earth provide the only shelter during the cold nights.





This women has just given birth to her fifth child-a -during a remarkably silent, unemotional delivery. Having spent two weeks in the open field, She is dazed but happy to learn that her infant is her passport to the warmth and food of the postnatal ward.



This eight year old, takes a few steps. The boy suffers from malnutrition, pneumonia and parasitic, foot-long worms that crawl out of his mouth. His walking is a hopeful sign.