Dhaka, Bangladesh

Six Oranges teamed up with Al-Falah Bangladesh and held a successful photographic competition and exhibition focussing on the the 2nd anniversary of the granting of citizenship to urdu-speaking Bangladeshis. Ummid 2010, was held at the Alliance Francaise de Dhaka in May and received wide media coverage.
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Honourable Justice Amirul Kabir Chowdhury, former Chairman, National Human Rights Commission inaugurated the Exhibition. At the prize-giving ceremony, Dr Abrar of RMMRU presided, and Retired Chief Justice M. Habibur Rahman was the Chief Guest. Al-Falah's Ahmed Ilias and distinguished Advocate M I Farooqi were also present. One of Bangladesh's foremost photographers - GMB Akash attended as a judge as did award-winning Spanish documentary maker, David Munoz and Asif Saleh of Drishtipat. Dr Annu Jalais and Mark Rendeiro, the remaining judges, unfortunately could not attend.
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Kids from the Urdu-speaker 'camps' were given disposable cameras to take photos with. The result of their work featured in a slideshow. These photos gave a glimpse of camp life from "within." It was a great initiative undertaken by Hannah Sholder who had been working with Al-Falah Bangladesh. The exhibition also featured a reconstruction of an 8x8 foot hovel - a typical size of abode in the camps. It was put together by carpenters and workers from Geneva Camp.
Read moreUmmid 2010

Six Oranges plan to produce a large format book using images from the competition and text provided by community organisers, academics and photographers. It will be a unique publication depicting the current state of affairs for urdu-speaking Bangladeshis and looking towards a better future.

We are currently looking for support in this venture - this can be in the form of pre-sales, distribution, sponsorship or some other arrangement. If you or your organisation might be interested, please contact Shafiur Rahman or Harjinder Bahra of Six Oranges or Khalid Hussein of Al-Falah Bangladesh.

We are also searching for venues which might wish to exhibit part of the exhibition. The photographs are very attractively framed, and they would lend themselves to an interesting exhibition. All publicity materials will be provided. Again, if you or your organisation have a public area for display either to your own staff or indeed the public, please get in touch. There is no charge for borrowing our photographs. The venue needs to be in Dhaka.

In addition to the above, Six Oranges plan to film and record qawali singers from the urdu-speaking camps of Bangladesh. This will be another initiative to retain focus on the re-instatement of meaningful citizenship to urdu-speakers.

Finally, thanks to all the helpers for making the competition and event successful. Special mention goes to Parminder Bahra, Ketaki Devasthali, Paul Gomes, Shanu Manik, Sema Naz, Brian Peters and Bablu Sheikh.

In the News

The exhibition and prize-giving received quite a bit of press attention with feature articles in The Independent(Bangladesh) and New Age. TV channel Bangla ATN covered the prize-giving. Maureen Lynch of Refugees International also highlighted the event.

The Prize Winners were M R K Palash ( First Prize, Camp Life Category; Saikat Mojumder (First Prize, Common Future Category); M. Rakibul Hasan ( 2nd Prize, Camp Life); Jashim Salam (2nd Prize Common Future); Andrew Biraj ( 3rd Prize, Camp Life); Kazi Arifur Rahman (3rd Prize, Common Future)

Our thanks to all the international and Bangladeshi entrants - professionals, enthusiasts and camp residents. We received more than 500 images!

Ummid 2010 is an initiative of Six Oranges Ltd The event received support from RMMRU, Nandan, Alliance Francaise de Dhaka and Al Falah, Bangladesh. Permission to use the image above was given by Greg Constantine.