Ron W. Shaw was born in 1951 on a farm near Perth, Ontario. He studied journalism at Algonquin College of Applied Arts at Ottawa, and has worked on newspapers, radio and television across Ontario. Since 1974 Shaw has lived almost exclusively in developing countries. He worked as a photographer on the island of Montserrat and directed documentary and training films in Chad, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. In addition, he has built dikes in Bangladesh, worked on a cattle ranch in Niger, dug village wells in Cameroon, and been an advisor to the Farm Cooperative Movement in Uganda. He has also fed war refugees in Chad and aided Palestinians in Jordan. At present, he travels extensively as a food-aid consultant to Africa, the Middle East, Asia and South America.