PANOS FEATURE STORIES

India school lunch programmeIt is noon in the holy city of Vrindavan in northern India and the lunch bell has just sounded at Poorva Madhyamik Vidyalaya primary school. Seated inside her office, Rajendra Chandel, the bespectacled headmistress, shouts instructions into a megaphone. “All students can come out of the classrooms, sit down in a line to receive your food and pray to God before eating,” she orders. “Eat your food with love and once you’re done, put your plates on one side.”

COMMUNITY GARDEN IN ARGENTINAMario Benito walks into his allotment with a smile. At home he has been making a device to keep bugs away from his vegetables and he is about to try it out. Made from old plastic bottles, sliced to create a fan, it is just what he needs to protect his new basil and tomato seedlings.

MALI: WE ARE STARVINGFor almost a year we have been following the life of Kaidia Samaké who lives in the village of Gwelekoro in Mali. Kaidia, 41, is a widow. She supports her children and grandchildren, trying to feed them, clothe them and send them to school, despite having limited means of making money.

MANIPUR BOX TRAININGManipur, a small state in the politically fragile north-east region of India, is often in the headlines for the recurrent tensions and conflicts among its many ethnic communities. Violence is part of daily life. Insurgent groups frequently clash with the Indian Army, and bombings, killings, abductions and extortion are common.
But for a few days conflicts were forgotten as the state came together to cheer on one woman.

Women boxers in IndiaThe ring is basic: a raised platform with a simple roof in the open air of a park. People come here to walk, children to play, and several visitors stop to watch a group of girls getting ready to train.

Dadaab: Cadaalo Beauty Salon, Jo Harrison/OxfamDadaab: Asha Mohamed, 20, owner of the Cadaalo beauty Salon, Dadaab, 2012 / photo: Jo Harrison/Oxfam

Dadaab refugee complex usually only makes the headlines in times of crisis. Yet when the cameras stop rolling the sprawling complex in north eastern Kenya continues to be home to nearly half a million people. Unable to leave the camps without travel permits and unable to officially work due to Kenyan employment laws, many residents have turned entrepreneur to survive.

AFGHAN MOTHERS AT RISKSadia had her first child at the age of 13. Now 37, she has 11 children. Like most Afghan women she has little say in the decision-making of the size of the family or her own reproductive health. She has almost no concept that the number of children she has could be a matter of choice. Asked why she chose to have so many children, she looks confused.

INDIAN MEN: OPTING FOR STERILISATIONJag Roshan Sharma decided to have a vasectomy because he wanted to make sure he could pay his children’s school fees.

INTERVIEWER MOHAMMED BASHIRMohammed Bashir Sheik was four when he arrived at Dadaab from Somalia with his mother and sister 18 years ago. The family, along with tens of thousands of others, had fled the civil war in Somalia, looking for refuge over the border in north-eastern Kenya.

FACING THE TALIBANSIn a rundown building in the mountain village of Sijban, girls sit at their desks, hair loosely covered in white or black scarves, staring raptly at their teacher. They say they want to become either doctors or teachers when they grow up.

Escaping drug gangs in Sao PauloAs Marcos Lopes recounts his teenage years as the head of a drug trafficking gang involved in turf disputes in a São Paulo favela, it sounds as if he’s narrating an action movie. Gesturing wildly to give more punch to the story, he laughs at the end of each recollection.

Subcategories