ISSUE 1, NOV 2012

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ISSUE 1, NOV 2012

Yoko LanceManaging Editor

from the

editorial board

Welcome to the very first issue of the ARGUS eMagazine!

The ARGUS is a digital portal founded in 2008 at Griffith

University by ePhotojournalism students enrolled in the

Bachelor of Digital Media degree at Queensland College of

Art, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia.

This year, our editors worked tirelessly on re-designing and

editing the ARGUS from a blog-style online magazine to a

new eMagazine and website. All the stories for our first issue

were carefully selected and edited from student submissions

by our editorial board, and we are confident in the high

quality of these stories according to industry standards.

Our mission is to engage readers in dialogue with stories

that contain strong themes of social justice and human

rights, and that celebrate the underdog and the over-looked.

It was a real challenge to edit and fine-tune these stories and

to work on the best layout presentation. The team worked

tirelessly, researching and discussing everything from fonts

to the layout style, striving to perfect each of the technical,

visual and literary aspects.

While it was not an easy process, I hope you will agree that

the results speak for themselves. I truly believe that when

we look back on this issue in the future, we will find many

famous names, and will feel very proud to have published

some of their earliest work.

I am honoured to have been a part of such a great team,

and would like to thank each and every one of the editors

who personally contributed suchan enormous amount of

time and creativity to accomplish this project. I also would

like to thank, on behalf of our editorial board, all the

contributors and people who submitted their great work to

the ARGUS.

As we leave this new legacy to the future editors and

contributors, we hope that this new edition will give an

exciting example of what lies ahead in the future of the

magazine. We hope it will encourage others to contribute

not only their best stories, but also their personal skills and

creativity to allow the ARGUS to continue to grow and

flourish under fresh inspiration.

Lastly, thank you so much

to executive editor, Heather

Faulkner, a dedicated

photojournalist and academic

who devoted herself to leading

us through this challenging and

rewarding passage!

Marianne McDadeSub / Copy Editor

Zoe KorisDeputy Marketing Editor

Natalie Mariell ElholmDirector of Photography

Nikki LingwoodMarketing Director

Sarah WatsonMulitmedia Editor

Pip HigginsArt Director

Nathalie ReinholdtsenDirector of Photography

Vanessa AldridgeAssignment / Sub Editor

THE EDITORIAL TEAM

Heather FaulknerExecutive Editor

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table of contents

AUSTRALIA

LOCAL HEROS AND WHEELCHAIR MAKERS

CAPTAIN EDDY

NOT SUCH HAPPY LITTLE VEGEMITES

OUR NORMAL CHILD: LIVING WITH RETTS

GLOBAL

MAIN FEATURE: WELCOME LABOUR ROOM

CAN’T MAKE IT HOME

THE PRICE OF POVERTY

MINES ADVISORY GROUP

SINGLES

THE BEST OF 2012

CONTRIBUTORS

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Many retired volunteers across Australia work from their homes to contribute to the wheelchair project, including Roger in Mermaid Beach. Photo: Sarah Watson/ARGUS

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LOCAL HEROS AND

WHEELCHAIR MAKERSPhotography by Sarah Watson/ ARGUSStory by Marianne McDade/ ARGUS

Roger is an unlikely hero. He may have retired from the workforce but he is no idle man. Tucked away in his tiny tin lair in the Mermaid Beach suburbs, Roger works tirelessly reassembling old bike parts and selling them to the public. His project is his own personal effort to contribute to the Surfers Sunrise Rotary Wheelchair Project Club that helps to get wheelchairs to the thousands of people around the world immobilised each year by disease and land-mines.

To date they have sent almost 6,000 wheelchairs abroad.The Main Beach Rotary Club has been running the project since 1995, taking old bike parts and transforming them into the much-needed wheelchairs. Volunteers are mostly retired handymen, architects and builders, who decided they wanted to do something to give back.

There are approximately 500 volunteers across the country working from home to contribute to the project. Local volunteers meet at the communal shed in Surfers Paradise cutting up the bikes and assembling the wheelchairs. It was here that Roger first came up with the idea to fix and sell the bikes.

While there have been plenty of willing hands to assemble the chairs, raising the funds needed to get them abroad has been difficult.

“They have a few BBQ’s here and there but it’s very slow,” said Roger. “I saw a need for raising money and I had the shed free so I started bringing a few bikes home,” he said.That was four years ago. Roger reckons he’s sold roughly 2,000 bikes and raised about sixty-five-thousand dollars for the project.

“I never thought it would get as far as this,” said Roger.Roger repeatedly credits the success of the project to the many volunteers and community members who have worked together. However it has been Roger’s personal contribution and great idea that has helped make that large number possible. Roger puts in about one hundred hours per week working in the shed but he says it’s worthwhile.

The club sends the wheelchairs to third-world countries such as Timor and recently they provided about two-hundred-and-sixty to a hospital in Vietnam.

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Surfers Sunrise Rotary Club make wheelchairs out of old bicycles to donate to all 3rd world countries.

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The price of a wheelchair is unaffordable for most in developing countries and without medical welfare their only option is to move across the ground using their hands. The Surfers Sunrise Rotary is providing not only a wheelchair but also often a means to find a job to support themselves and their families.

While each of the chairs may change the life of the beneficiary, for Roger it seems to be all in a day’s work.“I just found a little niche that suits me but there are a lot of people in Australia that are doing something all

around. It’s nothing to get excited about that’s for sure. We just want to give something back”.

The Surfers Sunrise Rotary Club run a variety of other projects including the construction of school buildings for Tsunami communities. They estimate that every $100 dollars donated gets one wheelchair built and delivered.

For more information on donations, or to buy a bike from Roger, visit their website at www.rotarysurferssunrise.org.

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Roger sorts through the many donated inner tyres to fit one for the next bike he sells.

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Roger uses a selection of simple tools to build the bikes.

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Almost 6,000 chairs have been exported and put into service to date.

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Des La Rance came up with the idea of constructing basic but effective low-cost wheelchairs from old bicycle parts and other customised materials, which could withstand the rugged conditions of

undeveloped villages and towns in third world countries.

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It’s nothing to get excited about that’s for sure.

We just want to give something back.”

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Volunteers are mostly retired handymen, architects and builders, who decidedthey wanted to do something to give back.

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Wheels ready to be assembled.

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Many volunteers make light work.

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Volunteers gather every Saturday at the ‘Shed’ and work together on putting the wheelchairs together.

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Packing finished wheelchairs into boxes, ready to be sent overseas.

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Originator - Des Larance presenting the 1,000th Wheelchair to ‘Manuel’ in Dilli, East Timor.

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Roger started 4 years ago “I never thought it would get as far as this”. He has so far raised approximately $65,000 for the project.

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captain eddyPhotography & story by Yoko Lance/ARGUS

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captain eddyPhotography & story by Yoko Lance/ARGUS

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What would you do if you were told that your life will end in two months?

Fourteen months ago, Eddy Stone heard the bad news that he had been

diagnosed with cancer, and had only two months to live.

not such happy

l ittle vegem itesPhotography & story by Nathalie Reinholdtsen/ ARGUS

AUSTRALIA

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Us Norwegian’s affectionately call our country ‘Lille Norge’, which means little Norway. We eat brown cheese, we invented the cheese slicer, and we were all born with skis on our feet.

On the other side of the world, in our ‘Lille Norge’ community on the Gold Coast, we have found at least one other thing that we still share in common – our opinion of Vegemite.

This typology clearly shows this opinion as eachNorwegian is captured at their first introduction to Australia’s famous spread.

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our normal child:

living with retts

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Photography & story by Wesley Monts/ARGUS

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Spanning almost eight months of research, this is an intimate piece

documents the Usher family’s reconciliation with their daughter’s

diagnosis of Retts Syndrome.

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welcome labour roomPhotography and story by Kelly McIlvenny/ARGUS

Copyedited by Marianne McDade/ARGUS

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GLOBAL FEATURE

She is quiet in a room of chaos and clatter. Tulkumaripun’s small frame sinks into the dark turquoise sheets of the Baglung District Hospital Maternity ward. The bright green of her traditional Nepalese dress blends into the sheets. As a new mother, her pained stillness seems out of place. A mob of young nursing students in lavender saris gather around her with worried expressions on their usually excited faces.

Tulkumaripun barely opens her eyes, emitting only a soft moan as the drip’s position is modified. The lavender mob straightens her blankets, and then leaves her to rest.

Tulkumaripun had gone in to labour the day before, but there were complications. The baby’s arm had come out first leaving the unborn stuck in the birth canal, a potentially life threatening situation for both mother and child. Like most expecting Nepalese mothers in western Nepal, Tulkumaripun was at home, hours away from help.

The Journey

Baglung is nestled into the foothills of the Himalayas, three hours away from Pokhara, where mountaineers take off in search of the Annapurna range. The same mountains that inspire the breathtaking views and

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journeys, for which Nepal is famous, create unimaginable difficulties for expecting mothers like Tulkmaripun.

Tulkumaripun’s village Niskut is in Magdi, a district a couple hours away from the Baglung hospital. When the birth did not progress after hours of labour, her family carried her to the nearest road where they stopped a vehicle and bartered for her passage to the Magdi hospital. Upon arrival, the staff immediately recognised that she needed surgery and called for the ambulance jeep to take her and her family to the Baglung District Hospital - the only hospital in the Kali Gandaki valley with an operating theatre. She arrived in Baglung after an

eight hour journey to the hospital, still in urgent need of medical attention.

Welcome Labour Room: The Maternity Ward at Baglung District Hospital

Tulkumaripun was given an immediate caesarean section when she arrived at the Baglung District Hospital, saving the mother’s life. “She was very lucky”, says Janaki K.C., Baglung Hospital’s head nurse.

According to the World Health Organisation about 800 women die per day from preventable complications

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during pregnancy and childbirth. 99% of these deaths occur in developing countries. The probability of a 15-year-old woman eventually dying from a maternal cause is “1 in 38000 in a developed country, versus 1 in every 150 in developing countries” states the WHO in their 2012 May report.

“Giving birth is like the fracture of 206 bones”, says nurse Janaki. She smiles grimly at the reality of this old Nepali saying. Janaki K.C. has been working as a nurse for the Baglung hospital for over twenty-five years and says obstructive labour like that of Tulkumaripun’s is just one of the common causes of maternal death. She explains

the most common complications they treat at Baglung Hospital are after delivery hemorrhage, post abortion complications, and uterus prolapse.

Baglung District Hospital provides the major healthcare facilities for the entire Kali Gandaki valley. Head Physician, Doctor Tarun, first started working at the Baglung Hospital 13 years ago servicing 25 beds as the only doctor. The hospital now employs nine doctors and provides services to approximately 600,000 people in the district and surrounding areas.

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Head nurse Janaki comments on the challenges in keeping up with this huge workload. She says that the shortage of “men, money and materials” is the main issue. Janaki estimates that of the 100-120 normal cases they treat per month, almost 10% of them are emergencies.

According to a recent study by the BMJ, Nepal continues to have the worse doctor to population ratio in Asia, citing a ratio of only two doctors per 10,000 people with only 27.2%, working outside of Kathmandu districts. BMJ explains, “Nepal is an Asian country with a population of 28 million; its mountainous topography and poverty continue to “create barriers to adequate healthcare.”

Nurse Janaki says that apart from the medical complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, the issue of transportation and geographic location often prevents women from accessing the medical treatment they urgently need.

With many women living in mountain villages high up on the valley walls, the women’s only connection to Baglung Hospital is by travelling on dirt roads and steep rocky paths, often alone. Landslides and monsoonal rains quickly cut off villages, making it unreasonable to make such a trip for simple medical advice that is so important to expecting mothers.

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Tulkumaripun had gone in to labour the day before, but

there were complications. The baby’s arm had come out

first leaving the unborn stuck in the birth canal.

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New Hope: Foot Soldiers of Change in the Foothills On a small plateau overlooking the Kali Kandaki River, two hours hike from the bottom of the valley, Narayanstan is a small village that is home to an organization committed to doing its part. Mothers from this region must hike down a steep decent and cross the river at a cable bridge, before they can wave down a local bus to take them to Baglung Hospital.

“World-wide every minute, one woman and eight babies will die during childbirth,” states Arlene Samens, CEO and founder of international organisation One Heart World-Wide. “I believe this is unacceptable,” she says.

One Heart World-Wide uses the power of education to empower women with valuable information that will ultimately save lives.

The organisation trains female community health workers from villages all over Baglung and Dolpa Districts. They conduct six-day training workshops teaching life saving techniques, such as, hygiene, basic nutrition, and how to spot the danger signs of pregnancy complications. The women then pass this life saving information on to the mothers and families back in their village.

In 2011, One Heart trained over 30 midwives, transitioned two remote health posts in Baglung district into birthing clinics, opened the first ever birthing clinic in Dolpa district, and trained over 60 doctors in their new “helping babies breath” program. These programs were able to reach 2000 mothers.

Tilkumari Kolpata, 58, has been volunteering for 15 years with One Heart World-Wide. Her eyes are bright and kind, and the corners of her mouth always seem to be edging into a smile.

When asked why she volunteers, she answers simply: “To serve the pregnant women, and the children and newborn babies.”

The women in her ward face many challenges. “They all are poor, so they cannot afford to go to Baglung Hospital. They cannot pay for transportation, “ she explains.

She recalls one case of a breached delivery in her village last year where the family put off seeking medical assistance because of money. The baby died on the way to the hospital. “These are difficult things,” says Tilkumari.

In a more recent case, she visited a young woman who, at four-months pregnant was working planting and picking millet. She had heavy bleeding so Tilkumari advised her to go for a check-up at the health post. At the post the health worker told her that if she did not stop lifting heavy loads the baby would die. “You will lose the baby,” he told her.

With a proud sigh, Tilkumari reports that the young lady took the advice and “is doing well now.”

Bina Kumari B.K., 31, has been volunteering in Narayansthan S. Namunagow for seven years. “In my village lots of women die during pregnancy,” says Bina.

Bina experienced the fear many of her patients go through when she herself had serious complications fifteen days after the birth of her last child. “It was lots of bleeding and it was all around the floor.” She explained that she had a huge clot in her vagina.

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“I was nearly dying…I was unconscious, totally unconscious.” Her family took her to small village clinic in Paiyanpatta, “If I was not there in time, I would have died.”

Bina says the health worker from the clinic was also afraid and said: “I cannot do anything, take her to Baglung Hospital.” He managed to do an IV infusion, giving Bina some energy, and possibly making the difference between her death and survival.

Bina now works as an advocate for the women within their families. She describes their hesitance to come to the health post for an antenatal check up.

“They won’t [have a check up] because they feel shy to expose in front of male. In their house their husband doesn’t let them go out, and mother-in-law says, ‘oh you don’t have to go for check ups.’ The women don’t have decision-making power. That is the problem.”

Bina speaks about her dedication to the women in her village. She says, “I want to serve them, and I don’t want to see the women and children dying.”

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Maternal Mortality Worldwide

Maternal Mortality is deeply entwined with the continuation of poverty. In 2000, 189 countries committed to ending extreme poverty worldwide through the achievement of the eight Millennium Development Goals (Giving Birth Should Not be a Matter of Life or Death UNFPA 2001).

The fifth Millennium Development Goal is to reduce Maternal Mortality by three quarters before 2015. These global goals are, “widely accepted as the path to ending poverty”.

However, less known is the fact that, “none of these goals can be achieved without more progress in promoting women’s reproductive rights and protecting maternal and newborn health” as it is closely connected to other development goals such as “reducing child mortality, stopping HIV and AIDS, providing education, and promoting gender equality” (Women Deliver UNFPA 2009) to name a few.

Nepal was commended this year by the United States for its progress towards completing the Millennium Development goals – Nepal has made substantial improvements to all but three of its health indicators. While statistics continue

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to be largely unreliable due to underreporting and small sample groups, it is clear that Nepal has strived to improve it’s citizen’s health outcomes over the past ten years, despite conflict and governmental flux.

Going Home

Back at the Baglung District Hospital, Tulkumaripun eyes are open. Her head is propped against a small pillow so she may watch over her newborn baby girl, as Janaki K.C. unwraps the newborn from her many colourful layers to check on the little hands. The hand that had come out of the birth canal first is bandaged in white gauze; the

other hand’s tiny fingers are almost blue. Janaki explains the child has cyanosis—lack of oxygen—and will be sent to Pokhara with the mother’s sister, where the child can receive further treatment.

In preparation for transport, the child is placed in the nervous hands of the mother’s sister, who is escorted to the “ambulance” – a pick up truck with two benches fixed in the back and an oxygen tank stuck in the front cabin.

The truck scuttles down the dirt road towards the highway to Pokhara. The road is cracked and worn from years of landslides and the heavy rains of the monsoon

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season. Like the battered Baglung highway that is a lifeline for supplies and information to the Kali Kandaki valley, the hospital staff and One Heart World-wide trainers and volunteers are a lifeline to the many women of the remote mountain villages. The staff and volunteers of the Baglung Hospital Maternity ward and One Heart World-Wide are dedicated to riding the Kali Gandaki Valley of the grim statistics associated with maternal health in the region—they are the guardian angles of this region, protecting one woman, one birth at a time.

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Devkota, Bhimsen, and Edwin R. van Teijlingen. 2010. “Understanding Effects of Armed

Conflict on Health Outcomes: The Case of Nepal.” Conflict and Health 4 (1) (December 1): 20.

doi:10.1186/1752-1505-4-20.

Zimmerman, M., R. Shakya, B. M. Pokhrel, N. Eyal, B. P. Rijal, R. N. Shrestha, and A. Sayami.

2012. “Medical Students’ Characteristics as Predictors of Career Practice Location: Retrospective

Cohort Study Tracking Graduates of Nepal’s First Medical College.” BMJ 345 (aug13 2) (August

14): e4826–e4826. doi:10.1136/bmj.e4826.

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Yean Sean, 30. “My husband gave me HIV and went off with another woman. I also have tuberculosis... I have an eight-year-old daughter, but she stays with my mother. I am borrowing these tarpaulins to sleep under, as it’s icy

cold at night. People here are OK with my HIV, they don’t treat me differently, but I am too far from the city to get my medication. I’ve been dumped out here and I don’t know what to do.”

January 2012. Photo: Sitthixay Ditthavong/ARGUS

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can’t make it homePhotography and story by Sitthixay Ditthavong/ ARGUS

A large number of my friends are increasingly preoccupied with buying houses or having kids. Some are better at one task than the other, but the numbers steadily grow. House. Baby. Baby. House.

I know that not everyone is this lucky. I know this because in January 2012, a team of over 100 police and security guards from the development company Phan Imex demolished more than 200 homes in Phnom Penh’s Borei Keila community in a brazen act of land grabbing with the approval of the Cambodian Government.

Despite failing to fulfill a 2003 agreement to provide sufficient alternative housing for the residents, the company then forcibly moved them to Phnom Bat, Oudong, some 45 kilometres away from the city.

Tears erupted when they arrived to discover that they were being dumped on a patch of land with no clean water, electricity or sanitation. Back in Phnom Penh, policemen used tear gas and rocks to quell residents who managed to stay behind to protest.

Thirty-eight people were ultimately locked up in unlawful detention.

On the same day that the Borei Keila residents were unceremoniously trucked in and dumped at Oudong to fend for themselves, an enterprising local family set up a stall on the site to sell food and supplies to the newly homeless. I wonder when our appetite for profiteering from the vulnerable will be sated.

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Nguk Lon, 65. “I am partially blind, and have no money. Yesterday’s rain made things very cold at night. Things will only get worse here.”

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L-R: Jay, 2; Chim Saran, 55; James, 3. “I used to sell snacks in Phnom Penh for a living. I’m very angry because I’ve lost it all. I’ve had no help, not even from any NGO. I worry about my grandsons because they haven’t had much to

eat. I don’t think things are very safe for them here either.”

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L-R: Jet Leaplen, 3; Rua Sokhir, 24; Dinar, 2 months. “This is all I have. Nothing, I have nothing. I’ve stopped producing milk in one breast, and the baby cries a lot. Some of the others here give me milk sometimes. I’m not sure

what will happen to us next. I’m just waiting.”

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In January 2012, a team of over 100 police and security

guards from the development company Phanimex

demolished more than 200 homes in Phnom Penh’s Borei Keila

community in a brazen act of land grabbing with the

approval of the Cambodian Government.

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L-R: Reoung Chanty, 22; Trach Nita, 1; Trach Chanty, 1; Koy Khamera, 28.“We only brought a pillow, mosquito net, and the clothes on our back. My answer will be no different to anyone else because we are all in the same situation. We lost our jobs at the markets because it is too far from here. Our house

was destroyed. Now the company wants to push us out from here as well.”

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L-R: Kak Sony, 43; and Khan Sokkoe, 39. “We weren’t able to save anything from our house, because we weren’t home when the bulldozers came. When we got home, out house was flattened. The company sent us here in a truck.They left us here and want nothing more to do with us. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, we’ll just live here

as long as we can.”

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L-R: Mao Sok, 31; Nat Sophy, 3; No Sreymona, 25; Nat Sothea, 3 months. “I was a construction worker, but now I’ve lost my job. As you can see, we don’t even have a roof. I’m worried that my son and daughter will get sick because

it’s cold at night. The company doesn’t care about us. This is their land and they might move us on.”

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L-R: Jet Leaplen, 3; Rua Sokhir, 24; Dinar, 2 months. “This is all I have. Nothing, I have nothing. I’ve stopped producing milk in one breast, and the baby cries a lot. Some of the others here give me milk sometimes.

I’m not sure what will happen to us next. I’m just waiting.

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Tears erupted when they arrived to discover that they

were being dumped on a patch of land with no clean

water, electricity or sanitation.

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L-R: Rheun Vijat, 25; and Sray On, 21. “I’m not certain about my future now. I don’t have any income. It went when I lost my job as a moto taxi driver. I can’t stop worrying about everything right now - I just feel lost.”

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Pov’s clean bare feet are evidence of her inability to stand in the months leading up to her death. January 2012. Photos: Lindsay Varvari/ARGUS

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the price of poverty

Photography & story by Lindsay Varvari & Libby Best/ ARGUS

In Australia births, deaths and marriages are all recorded and monitored under the strictest of guidelines. We spend into the thousands for funeral services in order to provide the most dignified farewell for our loved ones. We cherish their memory after death with photographs and other mementos gathered throughout their lives. We do this because we care.

In the slums of Cambodia births, deaths and marriages are rarely recorded. Families borrow money or work long hours for minimum wage to afford the $150 - $250 fee for a modest funeral. Relatives must cherish the memories of the deceased only in their minds - this is how they show they care.

We are all human beings, no different from each other, yet the circumstances into which we are born determine our path in life. In Australia we have the capacity, and more so the opportunity to alter this path to suit our own desires. For those born into the poverty that grips the South-East Asian Kingdom of Cambodia, their path is unlikely to change, their circumstances unlikely to improve. Still, non-government organisations like New Hope Cambodia work tirelessly to repudiate this view.

Based in the heart of Mondul 3, one of the poorest slums in Siem Reap, New Hope was built from the ground up by Brisbane woman and former real estate agent, Kerry Huntly. While most NGOs focus on one specific problem, New Hope combats a range of issues in the provision of its services, which include education, disaster relief, sustainable farming, healthcare, community outreach, women’s services, skills development and voluntourism.

Australian volunteer, Cheryl Elliot heads up the Outreach team, which visits families who cannot make the journey to New Hope’s purpose-built Helen Bonner Health Centre. For over a year Cheryl has been providing food, medicine, clothes and other supplies to Srey Pov and her family due to Pov’s serious affliction: a benign, yet fatal tumour.

On a Friday 13th January 2012 Pov lost her battle with the aggressive non-operable mesenchymal cartilaginous tumor that took over her face 18 months earlier. She was just 30 years old and had four children.

Prior to this Pov was assessed by an American doctor and underwent two courses of chemotherapy in Phnom Penh,

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In the slums of Cambodia births, deaths and marriages are rarely

recorded. Families borrow money or work long hours for minimum

wage to afford the $150 - $250 fee for a modest funeral. Relatives

must cherish the memories of the deceased only in their minds.

Photo: Lindsay Varvari/ARGUS

but her condition continued to worsen and she eventually refused all treatment. The tumour grew rapidly into her mouth affecting her ability to eat.

New Hope provided protein powder and dried flaked fish and pork which Pov’s family cooked with rice soup, but at the time of her death, New Hope staff estimated Pov’s weight to be around 15 kilograms. If she could have afforded the $4 consultation fee at the Government hospital, Pov’s tumour most likely could have been removed.Her basic funeral provided the most dignified send-off her family could allow. “They tied her up like a turkey

though,” Cheryl said of the white cotton Pov was wrapped in before being placed into the coffin.

This confronting event reveals the price of poverty. It is a stark contrast to the solemn funeral ceremony we’re used to in western culture. It is a reminder of the plight of the Cambodian people and the need for wealthy, resource and knowledge-rich countries to intervene.

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Photo: Lindsay Varvari/ARGUS

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Family and villagers help to lower Pov’s body into the coffin. Photo: Lindsay Varvari/ARGUS

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Her basic funeral provided the most dignified

send-off her family could allow.

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The truck carrying Pov’s body leads the funeral procession to the pagoda, where her body will be cremated. Photo: Lindsay Varvari/ARGUS

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Pov’s body is unloaded outside the pagoda, which houses the kiln, where she will be cremated. Photo: Lindsay Varvari/ARGUS

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Pov’s sister, El Sreyneang, mother, Pich Borey, and son, Vechika, watch the burning of Pov’s body.Photo: Libby Best/ARGUS

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Pov’s coffin burning in the furnace. Photo: Lindsay Varvari/ARGUS

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MAG staff from the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team (EOD10) inspects ordnance discovered by locals in Chisang village, Cambodia. Once the EOD teams have been notified by locals of unexploded ordnance (UXO) there is a 24-hour

turn-around on destroying them. January 2012. Photo: David Mines/ARGUS

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on the road with

mines advisory group

Photography & story by Chloe Bartram, Jasmine Forrest, David Mines and Jessica Woosley/ ARGUS

Cambodia has suffered three decades of conflict that ripped through the nation leaving it in dire states of poverty. Genocide happened and the remnants of that mass murder are still very visible to an outsider’s eye. The people of Cambodia need to make money and the best way for them to do that is to work the land, unfortunately their land is riddled with unexploded ordnances and landmines. The farmers risk their lives to feed their families and provide a future for them.

However, the risk sometimes does not pay off and a mine related injury or death occurs. Should the same scenario occur in Australia the welfare system is there to support the injured and their families. Fresh, clean water would continue to flow from the tap and the fridge would continue to be stocked with more food than necessary.

This is the Cambodian legacy, the legacy of war. The conflict is over, there has been a ceasefire but balance has not been restored in favour of the people, who continued to be socially and economically disadvantaged due to this legacy.

Mines Advisory Group (MAG) is an international humanitarian organisation, which strives to end this legacy through working in current and former zones of conflict. Cambodia and surrounding countries are littered with land mines with the possibility of never being danger free but MAG are working to minimise and eliminate this on going threat. With 80% of Cambodian’s rural population relying on the land to survive what MAG does is of the highest importance and yet funding is short.

With the introduction of new technologies and techniques for cleansing the land of the legacies of war, MAG has employed the use of Handheld Standoff Mine Detection System (HSTAMIDS). Differentiating between metal fragments and land mines HSTAMIDS have the potential for a more rapid turnover of land to the community. In the 11A minefield, which spans 14 577 square meters, MAG has found 19 900 fragments and only two Unexploded Ordnances (UXOs) were found.

Without the use of HSTAMIDS, each fragment would have been examined by hand. This has reduced the time needed to return the land to the local community.

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Khu Fineor is a HSTAMID operator and works days in Cambodian heat to support her four children after her husband was killed due to a land mine accident. She finds satisfaction in her job through knowing that she is reducing the risk to her fellow Cambodian’s.

The effectiveness of MAG is determined by their interaction with the local community. For MAG to utilise their resources and determine which areas are to clear first, MAG has developed community liaison to educate villages and help people affected by landmines and

rebuild their futures. One man benefiting from MAG is 73-year-old Thap Meun. 10 years ago Thap Meun lost his leg to a landmine after returning to his village in Chisang. MAG has since cleared his village of all landmines. This has enabled Thap Meun to start his only fish farm and support his ever-growing family.

This is just one example of the 205, 346 families directly affected by the work of MAG.

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Photo: Jasmine Forrest/ARGUS

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A female MAG de-miner presents TNT in a bottle, used for the dogs to sniff before working. Photo: Jessica Woosley/ARGUS

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Staff from the Cambodia Mine Action Centre (CMAC) resting their mine detection dog (MMD) at Phen Chit-A1 minefield, Kouk Chor Village. The dog teams can clear twice the area of land than metal detectors can.

Photo: David Mines/ARGUS

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The people of Cambodia need to make money and the

best way for them to do that is to work the land,

unfortunately their land is riddled with unexploded

ordnances and landmines.

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Photo: Jasmine Forrest/ARGUS

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A MAG de-miner placing the landmine in the pit ready to be detonated in Chi Sang Village, Battambang Province. Photo: Jessica Woosley/ARGUS

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A discovered UXO at the Chisang 11A Minefield, Battambang Province. Photo: Chloe Bartram/ARGUS

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De-miners pass around shrapnel left from the explosion, Battambang Province. Photo: Chloe Bartram/ARGUS

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A community liaison officer teaches children at the Ou Da Commune on mine awareness. Photo: Chloe Bartram/ARGUS

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10 years ago Thap Meun lost his leg to a landmine after

returning to his village in Chisang. MAG has since cleared his

village of all landmines. This has enabled Thap Meun to start

his only fish farm and support his ever-growing family.

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Land-mine victim sits in his home. He lost his leg when he stepped on a land-mine while farming in Chi Sang Village. Photo: Jasmine Forrest/ARGUS

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singles

the best of 2012

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A dog cruises along the Surfers Paradise esplanade feeling the cool breeze through his fur. Gold Coast, Australia, May 2012. Photo: Natalie Mariell Elholm/ARGUS

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As a kid I constantly found myself alone by the water. Sometimes I ventured down to the Black Simpson River, and, if the tide was right, I would jump off the bridge with other local strays. Today, as an adult I realise how much

freedom I have lost since those days by the bridge. Brunswick Heads, QLD, Australia, March 2012. Photo: Yani Clarke/ARGUS

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‘Fork Lagoon’ lies 36 kilometres to the west of Emerald and consists of 28,000 acres of improved pasture which caters for many aspects of company operations including horse breeding. Owner Colin Hewitt is breaking

in one of the many horses. QLD, Australia, June 2012. Photo: Sarah Watson/ARGUS

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In a grisly reminder of Cambodia’s dark history, human skulls are displayed in a memorial tower at Choeung Ek, the site of one of Cambodia’s infamous “killing fields”. From 1975 until their fall in 1979, soldiers from the Khmer Rouge Communist regime trucked prisoners from the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh to Choeung Ek, where they

were regularly bludgeoned to death before being thrown into mass graves. Cambodia. January 2012. Photo: Sitthixay Ditthavong/ARGUS

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Cock-fighting is still a very prevalent and popular activity in Vietnam, especially around Tet celebration time. Vietnam. January 2012. Photo: Hannah Hawkins/ARGUS

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A group of people “ Saltnes Turn og Beksøm” camped out in the middle of the woods during the 2011 World Ski Championships in Oslo. They had tents, wood for fire and food supplies for the whole week. From here they

followed the skiers on their way to collect their medals and celebrated the winners. Oslo, Norway. 2011. Photo: Natalie Mariell Elholm/ARGUS

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Elephants from Elephant Valley Project are either bought or rented from their owners to give them a happy and peaceful retirement. Cambodia, January 2012.

Photo: Jessica Woosley/ARGUS

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Fashion workshop. Model Vigdis Bonvik Skagen poses for a fashion shoot, Denmark, May 2011. Photo: Nathalie Reinholdtsen/ARGUS

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A tuk-tuk drives along the side of the Mekong River at sunset. Vientiane, Laos, January 2012. Photo: Libby Best/ARGUS

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Home of a villager at Nabua Lodge, Yasawa Islands, Fiji, March 2012.Photo: Natalie Mariell Elholm/ARGUS

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A surfer catches a wave and shows off his skills. Burleigh, Gold Coast, Australia. April 2012. Photo: Nathalie Reinholdtsen/ARGUS

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The night sky over Nabua Lodge, Fiji. May 2012. Photo: Natalie Mariell Elholm/ARGUS

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A shop-owner eats a late lunch, in his little shop in the Siem Reap market. Siem Reap, Cambodia, January 2012. Photo: Elsa Walker (Yue Zhao)/ARGUS

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Many Buddhist shrines are set up in the Angkor Wat temples. The Buddhist men or women give blessings in the form of insense and bracelets, in return for donations. Siem Reap, Cambodia, January 2012

Photo: Hannah Hawkins/ARGUS

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An elderly woman picks out the rubbish while sorting through the freshly caught fish, brought in from the Mekong River. Phnom Penh, Cambodia, January 2012.

Photo: Jessie Tarrant/ARGUS

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Cambodia’s medical system appears mostly to be a commercial enterprise, designed to earn money for pharmaceutical companies. Cancer patient, Mom, is forced to pay for chemotherapy herself. Mom passed away on

the 6th March 2012 leaving behind her husband and two children under the age of seven. Cambodia, February 2012. Photo: Chloe Bartram/ARGUS

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Monks walk along the Mekong River. Vientiane, Laos, January 2012. Photo: Jasmine Forrest/ARGUS

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Look Good Feel Better reaches out to approximately 9000 cancer patients every year, all of which leave the workshops feeling and looking great. QLD, Australia, May 2012.

Photo: Nikki Lingwood/ARGUS

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Marriage Equality Gay Rights Rally in Brisbane, Queens Park. QLD, Australia, 11 August 2012. Photo: Sharhna Hudson/ARGUS

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Children dressed in traditional Lao attire at the Tai Dam Ethnic Group Festival. Laos, January 2012. Photo: Hannah Hawkins/ARGUS

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Vietnamese motorcyclists wiz through streets of Hanoi. According to the Vietnam National Committee for Traffic Safety, 11,395 people were killed in traffic accidents in 2011. Vietnam, January 2012

Photo: Libby Best/ARGUS

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Model: Silje Olsen posing for a fashion shoot. Bergen, Norway, June 2011. Photo: Nathalie Reinholdtsen/ARGUS

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Model Julie Sætersdal poses for a beauty shoot in Bergen, Norway, June 2011.Photo: Nathalie Reinholdtsen/ARGUS

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After a few hours of preparations such as putting layers of make-up on, tucking in the man-things and slipping into a dress, Chinta Woo-Allcock is ready for the stage at Sportsman Hotel. “I was looking for something creative to do

outside academia. I wanted something I could physically do and get immediate satisfaction from.”Brisbane, Australia, March 2012. Photo: Monica Langen/ARGUS

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In contrast to the quiet and reserved punters, young partygoers steal the spotlight trackside during the Queensland spring racing season. Brisbane, Australia, October 2011.

Photo: Lachlan Gardiner/ARGUS

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Evening sets in at the fields of Khokana, a village in the Bagmati Zone of central Nepal. In Nepal, the rural population is 83 per cent of the total population. Nepal, 2011.

Photo: Laura Rodriguez Castro/ARGUS

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Blanca Monroy holds a picture of her son Julian Oviedo Monroy (19) who was killed in a fabricated combat scenario with Colombian Army officials and passed off as a rebel insurgent in order to boost war results and claim

incentives. According to the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), there are over 3’000 reported extrajudicial killings of civilians, or “False Positives” as they are now known, between 2002 and 2008. Julian

Monroy disappeared on the 2nd of March 2008 and was killed the next day, his body dumped in a mass “no name” grave to delay identification and investigation into his death. Soacha, Bogotá, Colombia, May 2012.

Photo: Marianne McDade/ARGUS

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Handicap International is a non-government organisation working in Cambodia to provide a free service of prosthetics for anyone who has lost a limb. Here in their workshop in Siem Reap are some examples of rough

handmade prosthetics, as well as some more professional work. Siem Reap, Cambodia, January 2012. Photo: Alan Edgecomb /ARGUS

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Tong Ma, 53, releases birds from one of the cages she sells for good luck. Vientiane, Laos, January 2012. Photo: Hannah Hawkins/ARGUS

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contributors

feature

Kelly McIlvennyWelcome Labour Room

David MinesOn the Road with Mines Advisory Group

Jessica WoosleyOn the Road with Mines Advisory Group

Yoko LanceCaptain Eddy

Libby BestThe Price of Poverty

Lindsay VarvariThe Price of Poverty

Sarah WatsonLocal Heros and Wheelchair Makers

Sitthixay DitthavongCan’t Make It Home

Wesley MontsOur normal child: Living with Retts

SINGLES:

Natalie Mariell Elholm, Yani Clarke, Sarah Watson, Sitthixay Ditthavong, Hannah Hawkins, Jessica Woosley, Nathalie Reinholdtsen, Libby Best, Bridgete Ferguson, Elsa Walker, Jessie Tarrant, Chloe Bartram, Jasmine Forrest, Nikki Lingwood, Sharhna Hudson, Monica Langen, Lachlan Gardiner, Laura Rodriguez Castro, Marianne McDade, Alan Edgecomb

Chloe BartramOn the Road withMines Advisory Group

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Jasmine ForrestOn the Road withMines Advisory Group

ISSUE 1, NOV 2012