What remains of a job
once it has long been paid for?
Special Project.
Since 2018, there has been a water tap in Zinder that would not exist without my clients.
This is its story.
was built
every day
every job from 2026
documented, with receipts
More than ten years ago, a man from Zinder wrote to me on Facebook. Mourtala Issa had worked for a time with a German aid project and wanted to keep in touch with Germany after the project ended. Through many detours, he found me. We became friends.
He sent me pictures from his homeland — pictures he is as proud of as he is of his large family and his faith. Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world. Much is different there. Much is the same. He told me about the beautiful sides of his life, but also about the hard ones: about illnesses that seem brutal to us. About the daily struggle for water, food and shelter. About the fight to give his children an education. And about how even the rare rainfall becomes a danger — floods, disease, collapsing mud houses.
At some point, after many months, I asked him: How can I best help your family? His answer was clear. The biggest problem was the distance. Kilometres to the nearest water — water that was usually not even clean.
From a Facebook contact
to a water supply.
A call. An inheritance.
A water tap.
I called on my followers on social media to donate for Mourtala and his family. In a short time, a large sum came together. By a lucky coincidence — a small, long-forgotten inheritance — I was able to double that amount. That was enough to fund a water line.
Water meter, valves,
official permits.
Connecting to the grid is not just a hole in the ground. It needs permits, a meter, valves — and someone who is there at every step. Mourtala documented every official errand and kept every receipt.
A tap rose
from the sand.
Mourtala documented every step — with a thoroughness you might call German. Every expense recorded, every official errand logged (Niger, in this respect, seems very German). He organised helpers and the construction. In a short time, a single water tap rose from the sand. No more kilometres. Clean water, right there.
Paul Rudolf.
There was money left over. Mourtala asked whether he should send it back — or whether he could use the rest to concrete a square around the water tap. Of course I said yes. And so a small square of hope and clean water came to be. We named it after my grandfather: Paul Rudolf. It is to him that I owe the inheritance that doubled everything.
Ordered. Returned.
Finally here.
Ordering a tank for Zinder means: waiting. It came, it was wrong, it went back. Mourtala complained, negotiated, kept at it. Then it stood on the bed of a pick-up truck — and was unloaded by the whole neighbourhood.
At night the water flows.
By day it does not.
The project grew. More and more people came. So the water had to be stored — because the government shuts it off during the day to prevent evaporation. At night it runs through the line into the large tank. Build the foundation, order the tank, complain, wait. Then, at last: in operation.
Over a hundred canisters.
Every day.
Last year we added a pump to the tank — more and more water is needed, and it is available less and less often. What happens at this point each day can be read from the canisters: at least a hundred are filled daily, often more. What began as help for one family has become the water supply of an entire neighbourhood.
Mourtala stands
right in the middle.
He doesn't just hand out water. He organises the distribution, settles disputes, makes sure everyone gets their turn — neighbours, children, families who have nothing. What began as help for one family is today the water point of an entire district.
Parcels that take weeks —
and always arrive.
For the children's education — so they can learn how to use a computer. It stands on a table Mourtala built himself.
A tool that makes daily life easier. Mourtala assembles it himself — as he does with everything that arrives in Zinder.
Help becomes independence: it produces dresses — and with them a small income of their own. Clothing the family can't use, Mourtala shares among the neighbours.
Water is the beginning.
Not the end.
The money has long flowed into more than just daily water. It flows into the children's schooling — into the future. I fund school fees, necessary operations and urgent medical treatment, medicines, food and rent when there is no other way.
It is incredible what leverage a small amount has on the ground here. What is an invoice for us is sometimes an operation in Zinder. Or a school year.
of the net profit of every job
goes to Zinder.
I no longer fund the project alone — there are supporters who give once or again and again. From this year, I transfer ten percent of the net profit of every job to Mourtala. We decide together what the money is used for. The smallest amounts are an enormous lever there.
There is no association.
And no donation receipt.
I have to be open about this: there is not yet a registered non-profit association, so I cannot issue donation receipts. Anyone who needs one is in the wrong place here.
What I can guarantee instead: every amount arrives one hundred percent exactly where it is needed. Mourtala Issa is reachable at any time, is glad to give information about exactly how it is used, and proves everything with receipts. He has documented every single expense for years — without anyone having to ask him to.
I admire this man. He never gives up, masters difficulties I can barely imagine, and sends me a receipt for absolutely everything.
Mourtala Issa.
He is the reason this project works. Not me. I organised money — he built, negotiated, documented, distributed and carried on, even when it got hard. Even during Covid, when the parcels took weeks. They arrived anyway. Always.
But imagine how hundreds of people in Zinder feel about it.
What people ask about #waterforzinder.
What is #waterforzinder?
A private aid project in Zinder, Niger. Since 2018, a water supply has been built there from donations: first a water tap, then a paved square, in 2024 a large storage tank, in 2025 a pump. At least a hundred canisters are filled every day. Everything on the ground is run and documented by Mourtala Issa.
Do ten percent of every job really go to Zinder?
Yes. From 2026, ten percent of the net profit of every job goes to the project. Jens Achtert and Mourtala Issa decide together how the money is used.
Can I get a donation receipt?
No. There is not yet a registered non-profit association, so no donation receipts can be issued. In return, every amount arrives one hundred percent — Mourtala Issa proves every expense with receipts and gives information at any time.
Can the project be supported additionally?
Yes. There are supporters who give once or regularly. The smallest amounts have a great impact in Zinder. Anyone who would like to help can get in touch directly by e-mail at contact@imagecouture.de.
Why does a photographer run a project like this?
Because a job can be more than a job. A Facebook acquaintance became a friendship, and the friendship became a water project. It is the part of the work that goes beyond the pictures.