Since learning of a large Chinese dam project that will turn 20,000 hectares of pristine valley in Cambodia’s Central Cardamom National Park into a reservoir, various groups have been fighting to stop its construction. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Luke Duggleby
The Tree Blessing Project is a Cambodian-Buddhist eco-warrior movement that aims to turn endangered forests into sacred ones. These efforts are aimed at deterring would-be loggers and hopefully halting construction of the Areng dam. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Luke Duggleby
The company "Mestizada Danse Contemporaine" gathers artists of different countries who practice different artistic disciplines, and who at the beginning didn't know each other. Their artistic and human encounter is at the origin of each of their shows and gives a specific style to the company. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Marion Joly
This set of photographs presents a collective creation on the theme of North-South: the Belgian company “Transe en Danse” and the “Ladon” company in Burkina Faso. Multidisciplinary, this show is aimed at responding to ways of life and very different world-views, trying to set the basis of a common language. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Marion Joly
Every day in the world, approximately 400 children between 0 and 6 years old are affected by a disease which eats away at their faces. Little-known in the West (though it existed there until the turn of the 20th century), Noma is still rampant in the poorest zones of the world. The disease first appears as a violent gingivitis, which very quickly attacks the rest of the face. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Mylene Zizzo
Tene is about to go into her operation. The procedure has been organized by "Sentinelles," a group that supports all preventive, surgical and nursing measures in the fight against Noma. The activities of Sentinelles know no geographic boundaries. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Mylene Zizzo
Father Pedro and the "cosmonaute". Hundreds of thousands of people in Madagascar have been rescued by Father Pedro and his humanitarian association, Akamasoa. This year Akamasoa celebrates 25 years of constant struggle against poverty, but also of a love for excluded people. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Rija Solo
Lunchtime for kindergarten kids. The project began in 1989 and now, 25 years later, nearly 11,000 children now attend school thanks to the group's continued efforts. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Rija Solo
For over two thousand years, the extreme north of Vietnam has been home to an ethnic minority known as the Hmong, where it is not uncommon for young girls to have their first child by age 14. Until recently, the mortality rate for mother and child in this remote region was ten times higher than for the rest of Vietnam. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Silke Gondolf
Conventional Western medicine does not have a good reputation among the Hmong, because it understands nothing of the spirit world. The new midwives of the Hmong combine both Western medicine and traditional healing methods, which has significantly reduced the mortality rate in their remote mountain region. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Silke Gondolf
Signatures. Sampat Pal Devi is the founder of the "Gulabi Gang" – The Pink Gang created in 2006 in India. When she was 12, she got married to her late sister’s husband. She did not receive any formal education. At the age of 20 she began defending cases of mistreated women in her village. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Viviane Dalles
Sampat Pal Devi, Rose gang chief, is showing women how to defend themselves. "A woman should not be regarded as goods," she says. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Viviane Dalles
War Over Water. "Here, water is more precious than food." This sentence might sound ordinary but it really means something in some areas of Kenya, which face frequent drought. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Alain Buu
A Turkana enclave in an area peopled by Pokots. Turkanas lead their herds of goats to water at the Kapedo river. They are escorted by police auxiliaries of the Kenyan Police Reserve. Conflicts over water can become fierce during times of scarcity. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Alain Buu
There's a special prison in Ethiopia from which inmates don't want to escape because it teaches them a profession. It's the perfect model of prison enterprise. In the Macalle, prisoners sell fruit and fabrics, build houses, bake bread, manage beauty centers and food stores. All this through cooperatives that have direct commercial relations with the outside. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Alessandro Gandolfi
In the past, relatives used to send money to the prisoners. Now, the latter support their families. Former prisoners find a job quite easily, or in many cases they continue to work in the prison cooperative. The prison has become a second family for them. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Alessandro Gandolfi
In the forest of Fontainebleau, 80 km south of Paris, a former biker bought a little field and 20 caravans. He now hosts homeless people, providing them with shelter and food, for as long as they need before being able to think serenely about re-integration. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Cyril Marcilhacy
For those who are not used to living in a community, daily life in the village can be hard. Every member must respect the rules. First, no drugs. Second, everyone must participate in feeding the animals, maintaining the garden, fetching water and retrieving daily unsold goods given by supermarkets nearby. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Cyril Marcilhacy
Let There Be Light. In the center of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a Hungarian Friar runs an opthalmic clinic and performs hundreds of simple operations on people living in remote communities who have no access to health care or transport to get them to their nearest hospital. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Dieter Telemans, Panos Pictures
In Egypt, a blind woman without resources has a bleak future, with few chances to make a living beyond begging. Al Nour Wal Amal is a private institution that gives free education and training to blind or visually impaired women and girls. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Fernando Moleres
The pride of the institution is a symphony orchestra founded in 1961, which developed a special technique that allows 40 blind musicians to play without reading scores or following a conductor. The musicians first read the music in braille, then memorize it in rehearsals. Above, a performance in Prague in 2011. © Fernando Moleres
"Inside View" is an ongoing project created and run by photographer Jean-Christophe Godet, whose objective was to offer prisoners at Guernsey prison an opportunity to learn about social documentary photography as a means of self-expression, communication and self-development. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Jean-Christophe Godet
The project started in 2010 with weekly workshops over six months. A group of prisoners were given equipment and educational modules on technical skills, and on the nature of social photo-documentation. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Jean-Christophe Godet
Yoga has grown increasingly popular among the poorest neighbourhoods in Nairobi, Kenya, thanks to Paige Elenson and her partner Baron Baptiste, two American yoga teachers who established the not-for-profit organization Africa Yoga Project in 2007. Above, Samson Muhalia (53) teaches a class at the Marga Education Centre in the Kangemi slum. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Jacob Balyani Lööv
Margareth (23) helps a guard and prisoner stretch during a yoga class. The prisoners attending the class are not necessarily guilty (some are awaiting trial). Since many of the women are HIV-positive, the teachers practice a milder form of yoga combing stretching and games. "As a prisoner," Sharon said, "even if sometimes I am too tired to do it, when I do it I don't feel neglected, I feel loved.". Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Jacob Balyani Lööv
The riots in Uttar Pradesh which lasted from August to September 2013 left more than 65 people, mostly Muslims, dead. It also rendered thousands homeless. Relief camps were set up to give people a temporary home—I traveled to the camps to investigate and to offer my help. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Javed Sultan
In the provisional school, I organized a drawing workshop for the children who were the most affected. Short of words, it was hard for them to recount the incidents. I asked them to draw their homes and memories of their villages, which they had been forced to flee. They drew sweet memories, though some of them painted tragic scenes, a reflection of the violence nestled deep in their minds. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Javed Sultan
"Hounds of Hope" documents daily life at the Penang Animal Welfare Society, Malaysia, where German retiree Barbara Janssen lives with her 250+ rescued canine companions. Many of the dogs have been dumped at the shelter or are there as a result of Barbara responding to rescue calls. Barbara relies solely on the help of donations and volunteers to run the shelter. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Julie McGuire
While her efforts haven’t necessarily improved the overall condition for all the dogs of Penang, she has certainly changed the lives of the individual ones she cares for. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Julie McGuire
Created in the refugee camps in Thailand, Krousar Thmey ("New Family" in Khmer Language) is the first Cambodian Foundation for underprivileged children. The foundation is apolitical and non-denominational. Krousar Thmey supports 2,500 children and is active in 14 provinces. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Kimlong Meng
The programs include educational offerings for blind and deaf children, child protection programs for abandoned children and victims of child trafficking, and finally artistic development courses. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Kimlong Meng
For fifteen years, Eric Julien has followed the community of Kogi Indians in Colombia. These are the last heirs of the great pre-Columbian societies. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Eric Julien
Kaizen. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Pascal Greboval
"Mother of the Fairytale" is part of a long-term documentation of the story of Tuburan, a Steiner-inspired school striving to be a sustainable green community in Davao City, Philippines. Tuburan emerged in response to the shortcomings of mainstream education. The school offers holistic and healthy education that aims to nurture the head, heart and hands in equal measure. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Louise Far
In its truest sense, Tuburan transmits education to loving children, allowing them to realize their highest potential. The curriculum tries to connect them and their entire community to the earth and to the culture of humanity. Image courtesy Angkor Photo Festival © Louise Far
