May 28th 2020: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan is a documentary photographer, filmmaker and visual artist. He is currently pursuing an MA in Photography at Falmouth University, UK. He holds an Undergraduate Certificate in Higher Education in History of Art from Oxford University, pursued a Postgraduate Diploma in Photojournalism from Ateneo de Manila University and also graduated in Film & Video Production from UBS Film School at the University of Sydney. He was nominated for many international awards and won hundreds of photographic competitions worldwide including Lucie Award, Human Rights Press Award and Allard Prize. His photographs have been published and exhibited internationally. He is based in Dhaka, Bangladesh and represented by Redux Pictures, ZUMA Press, USA and a contributing journalist for the Daily Star and Reuters. Hasan is also a consultant photographer and documentary filmmaker for Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank, FAO of the United Nations, UN Women, USAID, Water Aid and major iNGOs. He is a Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Fellow. Hasan is also a faculty member of Counter Foto, a photography and visual art institution in Bangladesh.
https://www.barturphotoaward.org/mohammadrakibulhasan
COVID-19 Reflections…
The Last Savings
Dhaka, Bangladesh
The world is at risk of widespread famines caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The impact of global economic devastation caused by Covid-19 has already declared as the worst humanitarian catastrophe since the Second World War. The number suffering from hunger could go from 135 million to more than 250 million. For Bangladesh it has become a human and food crisis catastrophe both.
House maid Hamida Begum who is now out of work said, “We only have forty Taka (Less than US fifty cents) at home. We have to drink poison, if we cannot go out for work. Who will save us from hunger?” The sufferings of approximately 7 million slum dwellers around Dhaka city are multiplying due to fall in income and price hike of consumer goods. There is hardly any food supply left in low income people’s houses, let alone ensuring cleanliness.
Most slum dwellers living in different parts of the capital no longer worrying about the virus and its infection but what worries them is hunger as they cannot go out for work. Their empty food storage and remaining little food supply can not save them from starvation and hunger in coming days.
Scott Mc Kiernan, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, ZUMA Press
