Happyland Manila 2019

In 1995, the Manila authorities closed the overcrowded garbage dam, and the people working there were transferred to a piece of land that was used as a food waste landfill. Even though they were only allowed to stay for a while, they did not leave this place and created one of the largest slums, which today houses over 30,000 inhabitants. HAPPYLAND - this official name was created from the spontaneously mentioned letters in the name HAPILAN coming from the local Visaian dialect, which originally referred to this place as stinking soil. This set of pictures is a record of the phenomena that I found most poignant, especially those related to the children living in this misfortune. Bernard Kwapinski