Lianne Milton raising funds for the people of the Sertão in Brazil affected by drought

Panos photographer Lianne Milton is raising funds for the people of the Sertão region in northeastern Brazil who have been affected by the worst drought to hit the region in 50 years.

The project – Hinterland – looks at the lives of subsistence farmers in what is the largest concentration of rural poverty in Latin America, the Sertão.

The project will be exhibited at this year’s Festival Photo La Gacilly in Brittany, France, and prints from the series are available to buy from the Hinterland Website (www.brazilhinterland.com) for US $ 100.00 each. The money raised will go to one of two organisations working in the Sertão, helping farmers cope with the effects of the drought.

Severiana Maria de Jesus, 75, and her husband Pedro Jesus dos Santos, 89, who struggles with his painful glaucoma, in their home near Campo Alegre de Lourdes, in the state of Bahia, Brazil, on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015. Although farming families receive a national anti-poverty cash welfare program, Bolsa Familia, they still suffer from chronic malnutrition, food shortages and limited access to water due to extreme poverty conditions. Their sitio, or homestead, received electricity just five-years-ago from the federal program, Luz Para Todos. Severiana Maria de Jesus, 75, and her husband Pedro Jesus dos Santos, 89, who struggles with his painful glaucoma, in their home near Campo Alegre de Lourdes, in the state of Bahia, Brazil. © Lianne Milton

Green caatinga, the native woodsy vegetation that characterizes the Sertão, seen through a green house mesh at the Centro de Formaçao Dom Jose Rodrigues, a not-for-profit center that teaches college students to breed and rear goats, reforest native plants, and agriculture techniques specific for the region. Green caatinga, the native woodsy vegetation that characterises the Sertão, seen through a green house mesh at the Centro de Formaçao Dom Jose Rodrigues, a not-for-profit center that teaches college students to breed and rear goats, reforest native plants, and agriculture techniques specific for the region. © Lianne Milton

A little girl plays with a bicycle wheel rim, running past dry caatinga, the native woodsy and thorny vegetation that characterizes the Sertão. Historically the region has the single largest concentration of rural poverty in Latin America, with nearly 35% percent of families living in extreme poverty, according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development. A little girl plays with a bicycle wheel rim, running past dry caatinga, the native woodsy and thorny vegetation that characterizes the Sertão. © Lianne Milton

“It has been three years of planting on this land. The river never returned so I never left," said farmer Joselita Antunes dos Reis, 53, who saved the last of the corn to replant along the canals of the São Francisco River and Sobradinho Reservoir, in the state of Bahia, Brazil, on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015. She began fishing when she met her husband, a fisherman, but when he died last year to cancer, she returned to farming. She was a migrant who lived in São Paolo, while her six children stayed with her parents in the Sertão. She was domestically abused by a relative while living in São Paolo and eventually returned home. Since her husband's passing, she now plants on the islands that have emerged from the drought. “It has been three years of planting on this land. The river never returned so I never left,” said farmer Joselita Antunes dos Reis, 53, who saved the last of the corn to replant along the canals of the São Francisco River and Sobradinho Reservoir, in the state of Bahia, Brazil. © Lianne Milton

A little boy walks his bicycle back home in a village near Campo Alegre de Lourdes, in the state of Bahia. The community of small-plot farmers works to preserve native plants and breed drought-tolerant goats. The Sertão region is characterized by unforgiving heat, slash-and-burn agriculture, water scarcity, and severe environmental degradation. It has the largest concentration of rural poverty in Latin America, with a third of its residents living in extreme poverty. Home to nearly 20 million people, the region lies between the Amazon to the west and the northeastern coast, and covers nine states. A little boy walks his bicycle back home in a village near Campo Alegre de Lourdes, in the state of Bahia. © Lianne Milton

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