Archives for Picture of the Week
Picture of the Week
Through the USAID-funded Kyrgyz Agro-Input Enterprise Development Project, production of biofertilizer out of organic waste was organized on a dairy farm in northern Kyrgyzstan. Natural biofertilizer, rich in biologically active substances and microelements, is derived in the process of anaerobic fermentation. This initiative helps to implement environmentally-friendly techniques and promotes organic farming in Kyrgyzstan.
From June 19-June 22, 2012, USAID joins delegations from around the world at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Rio de Janeiro, to mark the 20th anniversary of the historic Earth Summit.
Photo credit: Jyldyz Niyazalieva, Kyrgyz Agro-Input Enterprise Development Project
Photo of the Week: Spotlight on Panama
This week USAID announced that it will close its Mission to Panama in September, a reflection of Panama’s own great advances in development. Our assistance program to Panama began in 1940 with technical assistance for the establishment of a rubber plantation. Since then, we have provided $1.2 billion in economic assistance to Panama.
Our development initiatives in Panama have facilitated public-private partnerships and strategic development alliances leveraging local and external resources. As a result the sustainability of our joint activities will continue long after our Mission closes.
View the complete the photo series of our work in Panama.
Picture of the Week: Helping Newborns in Azerbaijan

Aishan, pictured with her mom Narmina. Photo credit: Arunas Liubsys USAID Primary Health Care Strengthening Project
Aishan weighed only 1kg when she was born. Narmina’s delivery was a special case, requiring an emergency Cesarean section. Aishan was born premature and required critical care to help her breathe and intravenous feeding to support her growth. Thanks to the quick thinking of the skilled staff at the Azerbaijan Republican Perinatal Center, both mom and baby are healthy and thriving today.
USAID’s support to train the Center’s obstetricians, neonatologists, midwives, and nurses in routine delivery and newborn care and managing complications contributed to the successful outcome. USAID’s partnership with the Ministry of Health and Republican Perinatal Center already has helped save the lives of many babies, including Aishan.
Photo of the Week

Climbing the apricot tree in their garden, these children are happy to be surrounded by a successful harvest. USAID's Productive Agriculture program helps farmers increase production and processing of agricultural products in Western Khatlon, around Dushanbe, and the Sughd Regions of Tajikistan. Photo: USAID Productive Agriculture program
Photo of the Week

The Empowerment through Literacy Education Access Project (E-LEAP) helps adult Maasai women learn basic Swahili literacy skills, which allows them to have greater access to essential skills. Currently funded through our Education Sector, this program partners with Mwedo (Maasai women development organization) and began in 2007 with 150 Maasai women. Currently, E-LEAP has empowered over 2000 Maasai women. The program extends beyond basic Swahili literacy skills and trains the women in business skills, HIV education, and land rights. Photo credit: Megan Johnson/USAID
International Literacy Day: “Poetry Unplugged” on Literacy Day in Kosovo
Earlier this year, the US Ambassador in Kosovo officially opened the Pristina “Green School”, built using recycled materials in an eco-friendly design with support from USAID.
USAID’s Basic Education Program worked to turn its bare classrooms into modern learning environments. To encourage reading among the students, the Basic Education Program procured child-friendly furnishings and books for the school’s library.
For Literacy Day, September 8th the program has arranged a special event entitled “Poetry Unplugged” in the new school library. 40 students from 6 different primary schools of Pristina will gather in the library for poetry reading by three well-known local poets. The readings will be followed by a discussion with the poets and then a poetry workshop with a young poet, during which the children will produce their own poems.
Picture of the Week
This photo was among the top vote-getters in the recent environment-themed photo contest sponsored by FrontLines and USAID’s Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade. To see this photo and more than 50 images from recent photo contests, visit the new FrontLines Photo Contest Archive.
Learn more about the next FrontLines photo contest, which marks the Agency’s 50th anniversary.
The deadline to submit your photos is August 15.

A USAID-funded project in St. Petersburg, Russia, demonstrates practical ways people can conserve resources and save energy. This roof garden, against the background of a grim city landscape, was created by the building’s residents. They united in an eco-group – a small sustainable community that implements the principles of resource saving and lives by the slogan “Start saving the planet in your kitchen.” In the basement of their building, they breed California worms that produce compost, which is used for growing vegetables on the roof. Roof Gardening Club Chairperson Anna Sokol, pictured reclining at the rooftop garden, does not complain about her tiny pension: “Many residents of our building cannot afford a dacha, so why can’t we go up on our own roof and start working for ourselves.” Photo Credit: Dmitry Feklisov
Picture of the Week

This photo was chosen as a finalist in the FrontLines photo contest. A young Malian girl looks happy to have an apple and good health after receiving polio vaccine, vitamin A, a de-worming pill, and a second measles shot in the village of Segou, about 250 kilometers southeast of Bamako on the inland Niger Delta. More than 2.8 million children under age 5 in Mali were protected against measles, polio, vitamin A deficiency, intestinal worms, and malaria under a unique partnership between the Government of Mali, USAID, the Canadian Red Cross, the Nothing But Nets campaign, Malaria No More, and other organizations and groups. Photo credit: Chris Thomas, USAID