![Women with cameras. [Photo credit: Leslie Knott]](images/camera94.jpg "Women with cameras. [Photo credit: Leslie Knott]")
Women play with their new digital cameras. From the refugee camp in Fatehbarg, in Jalabad City, to the northern mountain-top village of Shawak, in Badakshan, the themes their photos illustrate are consistent – the issues of health care, water, education and earning a living all reoccur.
Photo: Leslie Knott
"Every day there is always a big line-up of water containers as we wait for the water to trickle out and fill them. Usually fights break out while we're waiting."
Hamid (age 13), Herat
"This pump provides our village with water which is good, but the area that surrounds it is muddy and filled with sewage. This makes transporting the water really hard work."
Shaima Bakh, Jalalabad
"This picture is of the walk most of the kids have to make to the top of the mountain to attend school. When the NGO asked us where we wanted to have our school built we didn't know what education was. We thought that a new building should go at the top of the mountain. Our community didn't realise that it would be a long, hard trip for the children. In the winter the children get very sick because there isn't enough warm clothing to protect them from the cold."
Qalam Nisa, Badakshan
"My friend does not attend school. Instead she works with her mother collecting water and cleaning the house. I think that if she went to school she would have a better chance of learning to read and write."
Parwin, Jalalabad
"I look at this photograph and see another woman in our community who has no education. I think that education must be offered – for children and for grown women – to help free them from their cages."
Khadija, Herat
"Many women die when they give birth to their children because there are no clinics in our village. This orphaned girl has been adopted by her aunt after her mother died giving birth. We have no midwives or doctors to help us. Medication is very expensive. It's almost three-times the price that the same medicine is in the city of Faizabad."
Quamar Gul (age 60), Badakshan
"Iftar, during Ramadan is the most important meal of the day. This family is so poor they can provide only old bread and tea to break the fast with. The whole family suffers from malnutrition."
Farishta, Herat
"My two cousins are both disabled, and they have been this way since birth. The lack of medicine and good food means that they will live short lives. It is hard for their parents to care for them because they become a burden. But I love them because they are very kind people."
Shaima, Jalalabad
"I like this photograph because of the bright red against the dusty brown. I took this photograph to show how one man makes money in our village – by pushing this cart around streets calling out for people to come and buy tomatoes."
Hamida, Herat
"I took this photograph to show how most people spend their days in our camp. Under the hot sun, women and men work shelling pine-cones for pine nuts. They are given a package of pine nuts at the end of the day. They can also take the pine-cone shells home for fuel."
Parwin, Jalalabad
"After attending school all day, my two friends Halima and Freshta must scour the refugee camp for scraps of wood and paper. They bring back what they collect for their family to burn for fuel."
Shaima, Jalalabad
![Women with cameras. [Photo credit: Leslie Knott]](images/camera665.jpg "Women with cameras. [Photo credit: Leslie Knott]")
