Challenge: Soft Focus II (Basic Editing III) Camera: Canon EOS-5D Lens: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Location: Kantale, Sri Lanka Date: Aug 22, 2006 Aperture: f/3.2 ISO: 100 Shutter: 1/60 Galleries: Portraiture, Photojournalism Date Uploaded: Aug 22, 2006
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Safina Umar is 34. On August 4, she, her five kids and husband abandoned Muthur, their hometown, together with the vast majority of that area's 50,000 population to escape the renewed war between Sri Lanka's army and the LTTE rebels. Muthur since then has been overrun by the LTTE and then retaken by Sri Lankan troops, and artillery shelling is ongoing up to now. 17 Sri Lankan staff members of Action contre la faim, a French NGO, were found executed within the agency's compound in Muthur, and refugees have reported missing family members and friends.
Safina was heavily pregnant when she embarked on the 60-km walk to Kantale, the nearest "safe" town. She started feeling labor pains during that journey, and the baby, her sixth child, was born on August 6 in a makeshift tent within a refugee compound in Kantale.
Now, the family are amongst 30,000 IDPs from Muthur who are taking refuge in Kantale. The situation is not sustainable, but they have nowhere else to go. Wish her and the rest of her community well.
Processing: Conversion from RAW, gaussian blur, unsharp mask, color saturation, bw conversion, resize and border, saved for web. |