NO NAMES 30-year old former sugarcane worker with CKDnT poses at home in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, on Jan. 5, 2015. 19-year old in the sugarcane fields of El Angel Sugar Mill outside Suchitoto, El Salvador, on Jan. 12, 2015. Former sugarcane worker receives dialysis in the National Hospital clinic, the largest in Central America, in San Salvador, El Salvador, on Jan. 14, 2015. 29-year old sugarcane worker, suffering from CKDnT, in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, on Jan. 7, 2014. 15-year old girl cries by the body of her 35-year old father, who just died of CKDnT in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, on Jan. 8, 2015.
Sugarcane Workers and CKDnT
Chronic Kidney Disease of nontraditional causes (CKDnT), formerly known as Chronic Kidney Disease of unknown causes, is a deadly epidemic attacking the world’s sugarcane workers and their families. Thanks to a global network of doctors, healthcare workers, and scientists, the origin of this fatal kidney illness is no longer completely unexplained. Research indicates that repeated dehydration, severe heat, and environmental toxins might play a huge part in the rising death toll among sugarcane workers. Pervasive from southern Mexico to Ecuador, Sri Lanka, India, and other tropical or subtropical countries, CKDnT is undoubtedly of global concern.
In 2013 and 2014, I worked with La Isla Foundation to document this issue in Nicaragua where the average life span of men who harvest sugarcane is 49 years. Often referred to as the “Island of Widows,†the town of Chichigalpa alone is home to 1-in-3 men, mostly cane workers, who are in end-stage renal failure primarily attributable to CKDnT.
Following Nicaragua, which has the highest magnitude of mortality from the disease, is the Central American country of El Salvador. According to the Center for Public Integrity, CKDnT is now killing more people in Nicaragua and El Salvador than HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and leukemia combined.
With one private sugar mill in El Salvador poised to make history by becoming the site of the first ever CKDnT workplace intervention in Central America, labor conditions have improved due to increased water access, shade and mandatory breaks. However, since this fatal disease is both a worldwide public health crisis and a social injustice, more research and health solutions are essential to continue creating a positive impact in the lives of affected workers, their families, and local communities.
My goal is to continue documenting the impact of CKDnT thus expanding upon my work from Nicaragua and my initial trip to El Salvador. I want to be a part of positive change, while continuing the drumbeat of awareness. I intend to use the power of photography and video to generate education, support, and community involvement.
Capturing moments of hope and despair / work and play / joy and sorrow / birth and death, my photographs and video are intended to illustrate the multi-generational impact of CKDnT, to bring the sugarcane workers’ lives into world view and give them a voice; to make this crisis resonate on a very personal, human level. After all, nearly everyone in the world consumes sugar.