50km Poverty Project

Poverty is a real social issue in Romania with many families and children living in awful conditions. A large percentage of these people are hidden away on the outskirts of towns and villages. To try and emphasise the scale of the problem I am going to make a short film which highlights 50 instances of poverty within a 50km radius of Medias. Combining this with what Love Light has achieved in Jacodu will hopefully show others than working hands on with these small poor communities can lead to successful results. If you are interested in helping to raise awareness of these issues please get in touch.   

Tunnel Vision

After visiting Paula and Gabi today, whos situation is still progressing positively, I was struck by how many people are left alone with no hope. I had focussed so much of my imagery and attention on Paula and Gabi that I did not look deep enough at those others who live in the same environment. The girl pictured is 16 years old, illiterate and has absolutely no hope in her life. She had been there on pretty much every occasion I had visited to photograph yet I did not have a single frame of her. I could have given her a voice, showed her face, but would anyone have listened or looked? Regardless, I should have noticed and tried. She is there now as I write this, surrounded by the dark like so many more. 

Progress at last..

This is a 1 year timeline focussing on Paula and Gabi who live in dire conditions in a small village in Romania. 

Fighting against a barrage of bureaucracy, failed promises and misinformation, Love Light Romania continually sought to find a solution for these children and get them moved into a safe and healthy environment. This month has seen the most progress and I hope in the next few weeks more progress will be made and we can finally start building a new life for these two children. No child should live in conditions like this. 

The situation with Paula and Gabi is shocking and they have been continually let down by those put in place to protect them. Even the large organisations like "Save the Children" who I wrote to one year ago about this situation and sent images and film throughout the year have done barely anything to help resolve it and have now become completely unresponsive. After seeing the conditions the children were living in Save the Children wrote back to advise: 

"..although the living conditions of the family are extremely difficult, the parents won’t abandon their children, saying they are making efforts to take care of them as well as possible."

I challenge anyone to witness these conditions and determine that the parents are "making efforts". It is shameful that a multi-million pound charity does not have the backbone to put some real pressure on those who can change this situation and are so blind to quite obvious neglect. 

If not for Love Light Romania then Paula and Gabi would be living in that room for as long as they could hold out with absolutely no hope as no-one else cared about lives.  

Again, these views and opinions are my own.