Bearing witness in a year of upheaval: Top 10 photos of 2025

In January, as my team prepared to depart for an assignment in Ethiopia, word came that our travel would be postponed. Unexpected pauses happen occasionally, usually due to logistics that would be sorted out in days or weeks. But we hadn't anticipated that our work would be on hold for the next five months. 

Like much of the humanitarian sector, Mercy Corps was suddenly confronting massive cuts to foreign aid. The ripple effects were profound: we entered a period of deep uncertainty as we fought to sustain the lifesaving programs so many communities rely on, budgets were slashed, and colleagues lost their jobs.

When I finally traveled to Ethiopia in June, the humanitarian landscape had shifted dramatically. In the past, when photographing program participants, I would often ask how Mercy Corps had supported them. Now, one of my central questions has become: What will happen to you, your family, and your community if you stopped receiving support?

Their answers underscored the urgency of our mission. Syrians who had been displaced told me that they could not survive without water deliveries. Ukrainian farmers described how our support sustains not just their livelihoods, but food security for entire communities. Whether in conflict-stricken areas like Gaza and Sudan or in communities devastated by disasters like Hurricane Melissa, our work remains a critical lifeline for people to cope in the aftermath and adapt to the challenges ahead.

In a year defined by political upheaval and global instability, Mercy Corps’ efforts remain a stabilizing force. Today, our teams continue to help families recover and rebuild in more than 35 countries, reaching 37 million people. The images featured below capture this reality; of both the challenges that arose this year and the resilience, ingenuity, and hope that drive communities and our work forward. These photos, and the stories behind them, offer a glimpse into a shared vision, of a world where everyone has the opportunity to not only survive, but to prosper.

With limited access to Gaza, we’ve been fortunate to partner with brave Palestinian photographers who have worked tirelessly under dire conditions over the last two years. They include Abed Rahman Baba, who described this scene of families evacuating Gaza City in September, showing the scale of destruction.

“I don't know if this is the 15th displacement or more, from Gaza to the south. I've lost count of the number of times I've been displaced. But the most brutal thing, almost two years after, is that life has become even harsher, caught between tents, destruction, starvation, and displacement. As a photographer, you feel that even your camera is tired of capturing images of sorrow and pain. Destruction lies behind the displacement, columns of fire behind you from the bombings and the demolition of homes. How long will this scene last?”

Since the most recent ceasefire in October, approximately 500,000 people have returned to northern Gaza to inspect their homes amid rubble, unexploded ordinances, and collapsed infrastructure. Families are returning to Gaza City, but they remain cut off from the infrastructure like water plants, health centers, and resources necessary to survive. While Mercy Corps has been operating from central Gaza, we will be reopening an office further north in Gaza City and scaling response activities to meet urgent needs.

While enduring hunger himself, Abed also captured this image of Palestinians waiting for food at a distribution in Southern Gaza. “A hungry photographer takes a photo of hungry displaced people,” he recalled. “The scene of empty food containers, the sad eyes of the starving, the same type of food repeated daily, the cries of children and women queuing in a long line, then jostling, racing for a bowl of lentils or rice—it makes you feel pain as you capture images that have violated the dignity of those forced to flee, who left their homes under bombardment and fire.”

Since October 2023, Mercy Corps and our local partners have reached over 385,000 people in Gaza with emergency support, including food, cash, hygiene supplies, clean water, shelter kits, and psychosocial assistance. We are actively providing safe drinking water and cash assistance to displaced families and are poised to deliver thousands more kits and supplies, which currently remain blocked. We are already scaling our ongoing programming and are ready to deliver lifesaving in-kind assistance to over 160,000 people—and to support millions more through our partners—as soon as borders fully open and our supplies are permitted to enter.

The October ceasefire opened a fragile but vital window for relief. Though the fighting may be reduced, the suffering continues, and immediate action is needed.

I was finally able to enter Gaza once the recent ceasefire was declared. My last visit was in 2019, and I was stunned by how profoundly the conflict has changed everything. Back then, I could drink tea with colleagues by the beach in the evening; now that same shoreline is crowded with families living in tents, displaced from their homes.

After all this time, it was a relief to meet Abed, the photographer who took the photos above, following years of communicating only by email and text. This assignment was a rare moment to reconnect with our dedicated team in Gaza, who are working tirelessly to support their families and neighbors despite unimaginable challenges.

I’m returning from Gaza carrying what feels like an endless set of images depicting destruction, displacement, and hunger. I could have chosen any number of harrowing photos to share here. But one that stays with me is the photo above: a father inside his family’s tent, playful and smiling at his 5-week-old baby. I had been photographing his 9-year-old son, as he dug a trench in the mud outside in an effort to drain the water left by the previous night’s heavy winter rains. He invited me into the tent to see how they were living, and inside I found this scene between his father and sibling. Quiet and tender. A moment of respite.

It was a crisp autumn day when I met Juriy at his farm. The leaves had begun to turn, the air carried a chill, and rows of strawberry plants stretched neatly across the fields. For a moment, it was easy to forget this was a war zone—until the distant hum of drones reminded us otherwise.

As Juriy’s dog bounded across the field and leapt into his arms, I caught the moment against a backdrop of color and calm. It was a brief instant of solace from the ever-present tension of the conflict. When the full-scale war erupted in 2022, Juriy and his family fled the fighting in the Poltava region, losing their entire farm. In 2023, Juriy began again from nothing. Through a government program, he bought a small house, drilled a well, set up a drip irrigation system, and built a greenhouse for seedlings. The following year, with support from Mercy Corps, the family planted 500 raspberry and blackcurrant bushes, 6,000 strawberry plants, and dozens of varieties of tomatoes and cucumbers, restoring not just their livelihood, but their hope.

On a cold, grey September afternoon, Alyona and her husband Oleksandr welcomed me to their farm in Novohryhorivka, where they grow and harvest wheat, barley, alfalfa, and sunflowers. They walked me through their home, its rooms scarred by artillery fire, walls punctured by gaping holes that let in the slanting, windblown rain. In one of those rooms, Alyona paused, gazing past the missing wall toward their fields. She glanced back at me, as if checking whether I understood what she was seeing. That was the moment I took the photo above.

In March 2022, the war forced the couple and their two young children to flee their farm. They were displaced for three months before returning to find all of their equipment destroyed. Starting from nothing, they’ve rebuilt with support from Mercy Corps, purchasing a tractor, seeder, and baler—eventually bringing back their five farmworkers. Supporting farmers not only helps those families reclaim their way of life and work, they are also able to hire more workers. This, in turn, sustains and rebuilds local economies while increasing food and trade within their communities.

Mercy Corps programs have supported more than 440 subsistence farmers and over 50 farming businesses, helping to restore agricultural work, increase incomes, and expand productivity.

It took an entire day of driving to reach the remote town of Danbarweyne, in the Somali region of eastern Ethiopia, where Zaineb and Hodan were pumping water from a well. I noticed them from a distance, their brightly colored clothes standing out against the dry landscape as they worked tirelessly to pump fresh water from a deep well. After introducing myself, I stepped back to take this photo.

The well that once sustained the community fell into disrepair just four years after it was originally built in 2018, leaving families to rely on a seasonal stream shared with livestock. The water was dirty, and illness became routine—made even worse by the deepening drought brought on by climate change. In 2024, Mercy Corps helped to repair the well, and the community finally regained access to reliable, clean water. Today, Zaineb and Hodan, and their children, are improving their health with a consistent source of safe water nearby.

At a daycare center buzzing with the energy and chaos of more than 100 children, all under four years old, Tewodros* was beaming with an infectious smile. The daycare center, supported by Mercy Corps, provides parents with dependable, affordable childcare, making it possible for them to work in the surrounding industrial park. As Tewodros stepped back from the fray and leaned against the wall beside a cartoon elephant, I took this photo of him smiling at his teacher.

Tewodros’ mom, Aynalem, works six days a week at a clothing factory nearby, earning $43 a month. Finding affordable daycare is a challenge for her and other single mothers, so the center has made a huge impact on her life. “This service helps not just me but many others,” she said. “I’ve met other single mothers at the daycare who also rely on it. Without it, I don’t know how I would manage.” As part of the program supporting the daycare center, Mercy Corps is connecting up to 257,000 people with training and better-paying, more stable jobs in Addis Ababa, with a focus on women and youth.

The fall of the previous Syrian regime in late 2024 has had an enormous impact on the country. Before the change in government, millions of people had been forced to flee their homes to escape the increasingly violent conflict. Families made their homes in settlements for displaced people, like Saraqib camp in Killi, often living in tenuous and challenging conditions with few job prospects or access to necessities like food, water, schooling, or healthcare. I met Fatima* at the camp, where she and her children have lived since 2023. Before Saraqib, the family had lived in another camp for five years. As much as Fatima and her family want to return home, they’re one of the 200 families who remain because they don’t have a home to return to.

At the camp, Fatima supports her family through agricultural work. Seven hours a day, every day of the week. She earns about $1.25 a day, which is not enough to meet their basic needs like food and medicine. As she held a pitcher of water for her children, she told me about the water trucking and sanitation services Mercy Corps provides four days per week. The possible impending loss of funding for this program would deal a severe blow to the community. Many fear they would not survive. “Water is life,” Fatima told me. “If they stop delivering it, we are finished.”

As Kareem* surveyed his fields, he explained his connection to the land. His father and grandfather farmed here in Qalaat al-Madiq, and he hopes to pass that tradition on to his four children. He and his family were displaced in 2019, when regime forces surrounded their town. Kareem was injured by a mortar attack while riding his motorbike, and his leg was amputated. “It was not the first time the town had seen conflict,” he said, “but nothing had ever been as violent and destructive as it was in 2019. The town was almost entirely destroyed.”

For six years, Kareem and his family lived in a camp for displaced people. It was a struggle to have enough food and water. The heat baked their tent in the summers and cold rain leaked through the flimsy tarp roof in the winters. When they were finally able to return home in March 2025, they found their house had been completely looted. Mercy Corps is providing Kareem and other farmers in the area with electronic vouchers for seeds, fertilizer, and equipment to help them revive their farms and restore their livelihoods. “I just want to live with dignity and not rely on others,” Kareem said.

Although I have visited Syria many times over eight years, I had been unable to enter the northwest part of the country until now. The scale of destruction was among the most extreme that I have ever witnessed. Damaged homes lined the road for the entire three-hour drive south from Aleppo to Hama, where I met Mohammad*. He and his family recently returned home after being displaced in 2019. As we talked amidst the rubble of his brother’s house, he gazed out at his barren fields. “It was a life of constant fear and instability,” he told me. “We were displaced many times. We would flee, then return, flee again, then come back. And in 2019, we left and did not return for a full six years.”

For those who have returned to their land, over 70% of farmers in Hama lost their crops, and 65% lack the means to buy the seeds, tools, and supplies needed to restart planting and harvesting activities. To help people reestablish their farms, Mercy Corps has delivered cash to 140 farmers via an innovative digital transfer program to buy the essential supplies to revitalize their land and provide food security for the wider community.

*Names have been changed.