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    The Dignified Poor

    Photos from India

    There are [5] photos from India

    In a remote village in Bihar, a young boy carefully sets himself up to complete his school homework. The night is almost unbearably hot, and the flickering candle throws out a tiny sphere of light. Education is increasingly seen by the village elders as the way forward and out of poverty, with more boys and girls now starting, and staying, in school than ever before. Views[1656] An overcrowded train transports workers, and those looking for work, from town to town. In the middle of the Indian summer, with temperatures exceeding 40°C (104°F), the conditions within those 3rd class, non air conditioned carriages are sweltering. Yet day after day, these trains are full to over-flowing. Views[372] A doctor at an AIDS clinic takes a moment to try to capture a breeze after power to the building cuts out again. The dirty windows and back street location belies the dedication, care and love the staff exhibit to their patients - patients who are all extremely poor, marginalised, and ridiculed. In this clinic the patients are treated like humans, giving them a dignity and a sense of hope they would otherwise never have seen. Views[255] With sweat running down his thin frame in the massive heat, this man tells me what a newly constructed toilet means to his family. A common toilet - such a standard feature in our lives - becomes literally a life-saving object for his family. Now, when they get up at night to go to the toilet, they don't have to worry about cobras, or people walking by, or being hit by a truck.. Views[259] My first trip to India lands me in the impoverished state of Bihar. In a hospital near the Nepal-Indian border, a man lays asleep on the relatively cool concrete out of the oppressive heaviness of the Indian summer. This hospital is unique in that it is a modern rural hospital with a significant portion of it's patients being the extremely poor. As such it has became a rally point for the sick and homeless, the hungry and abused, giving them hope and comfort. Views[283]
     

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