This is an appeal. To raise awareness. To open your eyes. To see the lives of others. To help.
This is the story of some workers who were abandoned due to circumstances beyond their control. Some are owed over two years worth of wages. A pittance for some people, an absolute fortune to them. Some of them are embroiled in cases in an attempt to claim what is owed them, others just can't get home to their families. They are all legal status. They rely and live on the goodwill of others.
Mine? Yours.......?
Before this project started, I had no clue. No clue what was happening, literally on my doorstep.
That people who were once breadwinners for their families in far-flung countries were being abandoned. Whether due to their employers financial downfall, or being deemed "surplus" to the workforce, I do not know. What I have found out is that most of these guys were left without the means to get back to their home countries.
Left without accomodation. Without food or water. Sanitation. Things that you and I take for granted every day.
Most of them are out looking for jobs. Any job. But in this financial climate, it's near to impossible. In the evening they come back to their patch of sand they call home, share a communal meal, use their drinking water to wash, using jugs as a shower, plastic basins as baths. Go to the bathroom that's just a couple of pieces of plywood leaning against each other act as a screen, to provide a bit of dignity. Then they sleep where they can, perhaps in an empty shell of an old storeroom, if it hasn't been sealed off yet, perhaps in their makeshift larder/storeroom, mostly in the open.
Yet the spirits of these guys remain unbroken. I have never seen more laughing, smiling, bantering amongst a group of people. Ever.
Even though they're considered down, they're by no means out. A lot of us, and I consider myself amongst those, could learn an enormous amount from people like these. Life lessons.
So here is the gist of the matter. We don't know how long they're going to be here, under their current circumstances. We can only hope and pray that all their hopes and dreams will be realized - soon!
But while they are here, living right next to us, it's up to us to help them out. It's what God would expect of us, what we would expect others to do if we were in their position. Sympathy, help.
So the ladies, their husbands, all those who are involved in supporting these guys will continue to do what they are doing. Being Good Samaritans. Helping a brother in need.
The pictures you see here are the first session of pictures I have taken of these guys. I met them for the first time on Saturday, accompanied by some of the ladies who have been helping them out. We outlined the idea of taking a series of pictures of them, to raise awareness of their plight.
They all agreed, via their interpreter. So I arranged to come back last night and start taking pictures of them in their surroundings......
When I arrived, my suspicion of what they would probably do was confirmed. They had all dressed up in the best clothes they had, bless them all (the night before, they were mostly all in their old,worn lungi's and shirt-pants). So it was decided that the first shoot would basically be a general portrait shoot of all the guys in the camp.
Once I had posed my first subject, they decided that it was the way to go for all of them, with a few slight variations.....it was phenomenal, seeing the fun that they were having, shouting comments and making fun of each other.
It was decided that they wanted their pictures taken by their kitchen and in in front of their larder/storeroom. That's what you can see in the pictures above and below.
Their kitchen is just the gas plate on a few cinder bricks against a storeroom that has been boarded up, whilst the larder/storeroom is plywood and plastic.
So I don't know how it's going to go from here. My plan is to sell the images, or make prints to sell and give the proceeds to them (yes, they've given releases...), but I'm not sure if that will work or anything will come of it. They know that as well.
But I'll be going back over the course of the next few weeks to take more photos of them. I have to try at least. For their sake.
So you'll be seeing more of these guys in the time to come.
Perhaps you know someone who can help. Maybe not only specifically these guys, but others out there in a similar situation. If you think you can, send me a message via mail (all my links are on this page), and I'll forward it to the ladies here who are helping these guys.
And if you are on Facebook, Twitter, G+ or the likes, please Tweet, Like, Share, etc, etc. Whatever you do best. Make others aware....
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