There is a tension you must hold in Perry County, Alabama, between strength and fragility, beauty and dismay, resilience and defeat. The moment you discount its people and cry “poverty,” Perry County bewilders you with overwhelming abundance and gratitude. The moment you discover the outright richness of life there, you must contend with the exhaustive power of poverty to steal home, health and even your next meal.
Photo Gallery: Perry County Alabama
Alabama: Perry County is a series about holding a healthy tension between a perspective of scarcity and one of joy and strength. What, in all realities, appears to be extreme poverty may actually represent generations of strong, resilient families who have made a true home in Perry County.
Video: Frances Ford on Change
Twenty years ago, Frances Ford left her nursing career in Selma, Ala., to seek justice and development among her lifelong neighbors in Perry County. She speaks in this video about change in Perry County.
Video: Frances Ford on Justice
Twenty years ago, Frances Ford left her nursing career in Selma, Ala., to seek justice and development among her lifelong neighbors in Perry County. She speaks in this video about justice in Perry County.
Video: LaQuenna Lewis
LaQuenna Lewis serves as leader of CET ministries, a nonprofit of Eagle Grove Baptist Church and one of Sowing Seeds of Hope’s newest development partners. She speaks in this video about working in Perry County.
Video: The Kings
Willie Roy and Jennie Bell King helped build their new home in Marion through Sowing Seeds of Hope’s self-help housing initiative. They speak and sing in this video about their experience.
Mother’s death, Hurricane Florence devastation, bewilder Congo refugees
The Job-like struggle of a Congolese family who arrived in North Carolina this summer is posing challenges even to veterans of refugee resettlement ministry.
Physical recovery progressing a year after Harvey. Emotionally, not so much
On the outside, many of the Texas communities ravaged by Hurricane Harvey last year appear to making a comeback. But on the inside, some survivors say, the emotional rebuilding is only just beginning.
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