Awarded Pictures From Lesotho

A community works to fill eroded ditches with stones in Lesotho.

Category: Caring for the Earth
Photographer: Hlompho Letsielo (Mosotho)
Third prize (2009)

Mosotho photographer who won 3rd place in 2009 in an Africa-wide global photo contest entitled Picture This: Caring for the Earth. The competition involved capturing direct human action in bringing about real change to mitigate the present and future effects of climate change and environmental degradation. The winner, Hlompho Letsielo, is a professional photographer in the media fraternity. The photo contest was organized by the United Nations Development Programme. The aim was to raise the visibility of solutions and to illustrate the importance of local action even as the world focuses on national and global solutions. Hlompho photographed the community of Ha-pena pena in Maseru, Lesotho. After years of helplessly watching as their land was gradually degraded by irresponsible farming. The community is now advocating for a ban on illegal and irresponsible cultivation along the river bank. Here, we see community members filling dongas, or eroded ditches, with stones. (source: undp.org.is)

At rubbish dumps in Maseru, Lesotho, children pick through harmful waste products thrown away by the garment industry.
Winner of the 2010 Photojournalism award at the Amnesty Media Awards.

8 year old Motselisi picks off-cuts from the Maseru garment industry dumped and burnt at Thetsane Rubbish Dump by suppliers to Gap and Levis. Winner of the 2010 Photojournalism award at the Amnesty Media Awards. / Robin Hammond/

Chemical waste thrown into the rubbish dumps pose a hazard to the hundred’s of men, women, and young children that sift through the waste looking for recyclable material. Winner of the 2010 Photojournalism award at the Amnesty Media Awards.
/ Robin Hammond/

Tagged Awarded pictures, Lesotho