<< This is a detailed and in-depth narrative of a nation representing the greatest problems of Africa.
Through a dark and marked light, the photographer tells us about daily life and the support and presence of humanitarian intervention. The images convey a complete range of emotions, feelings and experiences. >>
The Democratic Republic of Congo is an area marked by conflicts, where war has killed over six million people since 1945. It is the richest country in the world in terms of resources, yet its people are among the poorest on the planet. Formerly known as Zaire, the Congo has been violently exploited, and has been supplying all kinds of raw materials since the days of Leopold II of Belgium. In exchange, it has received little but war, corruption, death, disease, hunger, mercenaries, child soldiers and rape. Rape, sexual violence, abuse of women: this is the tragedy within the tragedy of this African country, for which there appears to be no way out.
Over nine months in 2014, the United Nations Population Fund recorded nearly 12,000 cases of gender and sexual-based violence in five eastern DRC provinces; 39 percent of cases were considered to be directly connected to armed conflict. A UN study carried out in 2010 found that 400,000 women have been raped between 2006 and 2007 (1,100 rapes every day on average)
Today the DRC is experiencing a period of major political instability caused by the end of the third mandate of President Kabila, who does not wish to give up leadership of the country as established by the constitution, and the fighting in the streets is causing bloodshed from Kinshasa to Goma. As if this were not enough, the country is also experiencing an intensification of inter-ethnic conflict in the Kivu Region, as well as renewed terrorist infiltration.
Born in Parma in 1976, Marco Gualazzini began his career as a photographer in 2004, with his home town’s local daily, La Gazzetta di Parma.
His recent works include reportage on microfinance in India, on the freedom of expression in Myanmar, on the discrimination of the minorities in Pakistan.
For the last few years he has been covering Africa extensively. He devised and took part in the creation of a documentary for the Italian national TV network RAI on the caste system in India, which has been selected at IDFA- The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, and has been awarded with the Best Camera Work Award at the Al-Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival.
Gualazzini’s reportages have been published widely in several national and international titles, as Geo, The New York Times, LIGHTBOX- TIME magazine, Courrier International, L’Express, Internazionale, L’Espresso, CNN, M (Le Monde), Der Spiegel, The Sunday Times Magazine, Wired, Newsweek Japan, Paris Match among the others.
AVSI Foundation, created in 1972, is a non-profit organization which carries out development cooperation and humanitarian aid projects in 31 countries in the world. It carries out cooperation projects for development, with particular emphasis on education, it promotes women’s social and economic empowerment through their membership in cooperatives and farmers’ organizations, allowing them to produce more, earn better incomes, and raise the living standards and economic and food security of their families and communities. It supports 2,6 million direct beneficiaries every year.