Ali Barisa

Second Place, Photo Essay

Ali has been interested in photography since he was 12, when he would peek into the newspaper his father brought home everyday to check out the photos and dream of his future of being a professional photographer himself. For this contest he chose to submit a photo essay documenting kids participating in a slum neighborhood clean-up project for the Mathare Youth Sports Association in Kenya, where he is from as well. Most of the people who live in these slums are very poor. Their  shanties are surrounded by uncollected garbage and drainage systems that are often blocked by human waste. Such conditions contribute to chronic diseases like malaria, cholera, tuberculosis and dysentery, and are major causes of death in the communities.

Every week, participating children organize a cleanup and receive points that are added to their football team’s standing in the Association’s youth league. Using rakes, spades and wheel barrows they collect garbage, open blocked drainage channels and plant trees in public land and schools.

Ali is a volunteer for the Mathare Youth Sports Association’s Shootback Project, which he first joined in 1997 as a student. The Project teaches children living in the slums of Mathare, Kayole and Korogocho in the use of photography, and support their documentation of everyday life through exhibitions that travel the world. Ali now works as an instructor for Shootback, bringing his professional skills to the next generation.

“I like photography very much because it is a part of my passion,” Ali said. “A picture is worth a thousand words and the photographer’s eye is a mirror of the world.”