On her ninth birthday, Annalyn S.* was photographed by German photographer Hartmut Schwarzbach, happily jumping on a red sofa that she had found on the garbage dump near the city of Manila (Philippines). It has been three years now that Annalyn and her family have lived beside Manila’s enormous garbage dump called “Aroma Smokey Mountain”. That’s where her family lives in a charcoal burners’ camp.
Like most other children in this camp, Annalyn has to search for wood among the garbage every day, bring it to an oven and monitor the charcoal production amidst acrid smoke and unbearable heat. Together with her siblings and parents, she has to bring thousands of liters of water to extinguish the fire and collect the finished charcoal. The family has to hand over most of their yield to the local mafia.
Like almost all children here, Annalyn is malnourished and thus much too skinny and small for her age. She looks like a five-year-old. Many of the children can neither read nor write and do not attend any school. One day, Annalyn wants to be a teacher.
Great to be in the company of other notable winners such as arranged child marriages and child labor. Smell the sarcasm in this post.
UNICEF Picture of the Year, 3rd place.
UNICEF has released their 2007 Photos of the year and this placed 3rd place. Just another news story the Philippines can be proud of in addition to Thriller.
Great to be in the company of other notable winners such as arranged child marriages and child labor. Smell the sarcasm in this post.