Last January, Robin Hammond went to South Sudan to cover the referendum for independence. "There I went into Juba Central Prison. What I saw had a profound effect on me. The first young man I photographed with a mental disability was shackled to a prison floor. He urinated and defecated on the same dirty ground where the prison guards would feed him slops. He was naked. He didn't speak - he didn't even look at me. I don't know his name. The only way I could justify photographing this man was if I took up his cause and did everything I could to make sure someone was speaking for people like him when they too had been denied a voice."

This encounter led Hammond to start a long-term, wide-ranging project on the psychological effects that war, famine and natural disaster can have on people. "Conflict and disaster diverts funds away from health and education. For the mentally ill, hospitals become prisons and ignorance results in stigma and neglect. Care often relies on the use of forcible restraints in both institutions and homes. The mentally ill are often accused of being possessed or branded as witches [...] The mentally ill really are cursed, not by God but by the societies around them [...] I've never come across a more neglected or vulnerable group than the mentally disabled in African countries that are in, or recovering from, crises."

Hammond has spent more than $8000 documenting this issue in Uganda, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Dadaab refugee camp (north-eastern Kenya). "Each of these regions are struggling with their own crisis. What they have in common is a sector of society that is routinely neglected and abused."

Now, the Panos photographer is looking to expand his work to the Western side of Africa. "Cote d'Ivoire is recovering from a brutal civil war; Chad has been flooded with refugees fleeing genocide in Darfur; The Central African Republic's south-eastern communities live in fear of The Lord's Resistance Army; In parts of Nigeria, lawlessness and inequality has resulted tensions that have set neighbours against each other leaving countless dead and thousands loosing their homes," he writes. "All of these crises have led to traumatized populations and affected health structures that should be in place to care for the mentally disabled."

To help finance this work, Hammond has turned to Emphas.is. He's looking to raise $14,950 to pay for flights, accomodation, food, in-country transport and translators.

To find out more, view the video below or visit the Emphas.is project page.