"We don’t need much to be happy, that is what I have learned.” /November 4, 2014 by Adib Chowdhury

Makeshift schools, water pumps, bubble-blowers and balloon sellers … the award-winning AP photographer explains what it’s like to live and work in the world’s largest community of refugees.

http://gu.com/p/42ze3/sbl

Photo: Muhammed Muheisen

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Remember those feelings of endless summer evenings as a kid with your friends, jumping into refreshingly cold water then watching the sun burn off the little beads of water. Knowing that in just another months time you’d all be back together again, waiting to do it all again the next year, a little older, a little taller, another exam done. That’s what this one reminds me of. This one is from Enfeh, Lebanon. August. 2019

Evening delights in Lebanon’s beach town of Enfeh. Aug. 2019.

The cultural and historical binds of a colonial past can never be severed or ignored. I’ve had moments where I’ve been starkly reminded of the connection between the two places I consider home in the UK and Bangladesh; staring at a railway bridge and noticing it still reading “Sheffield Steel”, walking along a memorial site for soldiers in both World Wars and seeing Indian names, the list goes on. I’m writing up an article linked to this and found myself researching and digging through the @imperialwarmuseums archives, for Indian soldiers and their often overlooked contribution during the world wars. ⁣ ⁣ (Pic. 1) Indian Air Force pilots (Flight Lieutenant Lal & Flying Officer M M Sakhre) pose with their Vultee Vengeance dive bombers at an airfield in Assam, India, from where they attacked the Japanese in Burma. (Credit: Imperial War Museum archive, London.)⁣ ⁣ It turns out the planes served as protection for vital transport links from India to China, where Allied forces fought back Japanese forces and their expansion into Burma. Indian volunteers to the Air force joined alongside British pilots. In an interview, Air Vice Marshal Edward Stringer, a Senior RAF figure mentions that around 17,000 Indians volunteered to join the RAF, alongside 25,000 who fought in the Indian Air Force, “A staggering statistic not well known enough today in the UK.“⁣ ⁣ (Pic.2) A student Indian Air Force pilot with flying kit beside his Hurricane plane before a training flight in Kohat, North West Frontier Province, India (now Pakistan). Credit: Cecil Beaton, Imperial War Museum archive, London.

The pandemic has changed our lives in so many ways. I set about asking Muslims around the world how their month of fasting during Ramadan had changed, and what it means to them. I also asked for a portrait taken by themselves depicting how they feel in this moment of lockdown. ⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ Hear the full video on the webpage for the project. It’s now up for you to browse via country. 🌍⁣⁣⁣ see the link in my bio.

The pandemic has changed our lives in so many ways. I set about asking Muslims around the world how their month of fasting during Ramadan has changed, and what it means to them. I also asked for a portrait depicting how they feel in this moment of lo

EID MUBARAK! 🎁 The pandemic has changed our lives in so many ways. I set about asking Muslims around the world how their month of fasting during Ramadan has changed, and what it means to them. I also asked for a portrait depicting how they feel in this moment of lockdown. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣ Gina from Malaysia talks about how quarantine have her a moment to launch her new side business. Check it out @risebyg . Also because I miss Malaysia, I included a little clip she sent of the sounds outside her house. Check out the sounds of those birds in the last clip!🦜 ⁣⁣⁣ Hear the full video on the webpage for the project. It’s now up for you to browse via country. 🌍⁣⁣⁣ see the link in my bio.

The pandemic has changed our lives in so many ways. I set about asking Muslims around the world how their month of fasting during Ramadan has changed, and what it means to them. I also asked for a portrait depicting how they feel in this moment of lockdown. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣ Hear Jana from Lebanon talk about how she made the most of this quiet time for a chance for reflection. Lebanon has been impacted by not only the pandemic, but a revolution and crippling economic crisis that started 6 months before the pandemic. ⁣⁣⁣ Hear the full video on the webpage for the project. It’s now up for you to browse via country. 🌍⁣⁣⁣ see the link in my bio.