A new photography exhibition intending to break poverty and gender stereotypes will be showcased in London next month as part of ActionAid’s International Women’s Day campaign. The charity partnered with six female photographers from around the world to achieve the collection.
Hoping to put an end to stereotypes of poverty around the world, ActionAid wanted to raise the voice of local women telling their own stories, as opposed to the historic trend of western citizens showcasing poverty through their own lens without any real understanding of their subjects' life experiences.
The exhibition will showcase pictures of various women breaking down barriers in their respective countries, from a street artist in Afghanistan to the founder of a women-only coffee collective in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The exhibition will take place at gallery@oxo in London’s South Bank from the 4th-8th of March. But you can take a sneak-peak at some of the amazing offerings here.
Women By Women ActionAid Campaign
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Rebeca Lane is a trailblazing Guatemalan hip-hop artist who uses her music to promote feminism and fight for social justice.
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She is a survivor of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of a former partner, a topic she addresses in her most famous song: 'Mujer Lunar', or 'Lunar Woman', which calls for respect for women's bodies.
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Margaret is a nurse and midwife working at the Kawaala Health Centre IV in Kampala, Uganda's capital.
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She has worked with ActionAid since 2013, connecting women and girls in need of help with ActionAid-supported shelters.
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Margaret survived domestic abuse at the hands of her former husband and now helps other women and girls rebuild their lives after experiencing violence.
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When Cossy's abusive husband passed away from HIV-related causes, she sought treatment and support from ActionAid Uganda's local partner, the Makerere Women's Development Association (MAWEDA).
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She received training in hairdressing and handicrafts, as well as money to open her own hair salon.
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The salon has been operating for 16 years and Cossy trains single and widowed women in hairdressing and basket-weaving skills.
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She also works as a facilitator for MAWEDA and was elected chair of her community.
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Asiah experienced years of domestic violence while raising her four children in the Wakiso district of Uganda.
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Since 2013, she has received counselling, financial support and legal assistance from ActionAid. She now has her own home, which she bought with the profit from her firewood and brick-making businesses.
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She also runs a hair salon, where she trains girls in hairdressing skills. 'I empower them to work hard, [then] they go and work for themselves,' she says.
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Nabuule is a counsellor for women and girls living with HIV in a poor neighbourhood in Kampala, where she grew up. A survivor of violence, Nabuule sought help from Tusitukirewamu, an ActionAid partner in Uganda.
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Through the Tusitukirewamu community group, Nabuule learned to make reusable sanitary pads. She now sells them at affordable prices to women and girls in rural areas and trains others to make them too. With the help of her sons, Nabuule also makes and sells liquid soap and doormats.
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Rahiba is the president of Laman, a fashion house in Kabul. Laman clothes are colourful but conservative; Rahiba describes them as 'modesty with an edge' because they do not reveal any skin.
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The company's first fashion show was covered by international media but sparked criticism in Afghanistan – some people accused Rahiba of 'westernising' their culture and a few seamstresses were pressured into quitting their jobs.
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Rahimi at a photoshoot for her designs in Kabul, Afghanistan.
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Fakhria Momtaz opened Kabul's first yoga studio, the Momtaz Yoga Centre, in 2015. Now, more than 50 women a day come to the centre – despite facing religious criticism.
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Nature is very important to Fakhria, so she often takes her classes outside. She believes her students 'must immerse themselves in nature and experience the changing seasons' in order to get the most out of their yoga practice.
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Marcelline is the founder of Rebuild Women's Hope (RWH), a women-only, non-for-profit coffee collective in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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Set up in 2013, the collective now has nearly 2,000 members who grow high-quality coffee on Idjwi Island.
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Their coffee is sold around the world, including in the UK and US.
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In 2017, Marcelline won the prestigious Robert Burns Humanitarian Award for founding the collective and transforming the lives of Congolese women.
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RWH member, Bora Safari, 23, sorts through coffee at the Goma woman's coffee depot.
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Marcelline in her office in Bukavu inspecting some coffee beans.
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Marcelline shows RWH members articles about their collective on her phone.
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Female coffee farmers and members of the RWH gather during Marcelline's visit and talk through their progress.
‘It feels good to be among the few female photographers available in Kampala... it gives us an opportunity to feel part of our own stories and tell the stories of our own people,’ said Esther Mbabzi, an award-winning photographer from Uganda. ‘Many people wouldn’t fly me from Uganda to go and tell a story in the UK, but they would fly a photographer from the UK to go and tell a story in Uganda, but now it’s starting to change.
‘It’s really exciting,’ Mbabzi continued. ‘I can be a part of the stories of how my country and community is being presented out there in the media.’
For ActionAid, the Women By Women campaign is just the beginning of a ‘long journey profiling trailblazing women and girls worldwide and sharing their untold stories.’
‘As an international organisation working with women and girls in the world’s poorest countries, we understand the danger of "the single story" and how rarely women are asked to represent their own experiences,’ Taahra Ghazi, deputy director of communications at ActionAid UK, said in a statement. ‘We would like this campaign to give a different insight into women’s lives – for the audience to feel how strong these women are, despite all they have been through.’
Click here to find out more about the exhibition____.
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