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Meleah Moore
Meleah Moore


Commissioned for Alokito Hridoy Foundation. Alokito Hridoy has created a new model of education that they hope can scale throughout Bangladesh. Beginning with a low-cost charter school in on the outskirts of Dhaka that caters to the children of factory workers, Alokito Hridoy hires local teachers and develops new training models to ensure a human-centered 21st-century-focused education. Their model also excludes a focus on technology, and here, students practice math lessons on a school laptop. A busy market street near Chittagong, Bangladesh. While cash payments are still common on market streets such as this, Bangladesh is emerging hub for mobile banking innovation. Many are pioneering ways to merge development with mobile communication to enhance health and finance outcomes. Commissioned for VisionSpring. Sunita, a woman working on a sewing machine in a Gazipur, Bangladesh garment factory, uses eyeglasses to better see her work. VisionSpring’s Clear Vision Workplace program screens the vision of factory workers, many of whom simply need a pair of reading glasses due to age or years of straining under harsh lighting conditions. The program offers low-cost eyeglasses to workers, improving their productivity and quality of life. Commissioned for Helpusgreen. Founded by Ankit Agarwal and Karan Rastogi, HelpUsGreen (now Phool), coined a process called ‘flowercycling’ to reduce the extortionate amount of floral waste that enters the Ganges per year. The process involves collection from local temples and mosques, drying the flowers to mix with natural resins and oils, and crafting them into organic fertilizer and incense sticks. HelpUsGreen cites that their work prevents 17,000 pounds of waste flowers and 200 pounds of toxic chemicals from reaching the waterway daily. Milan Karcic waters his urban farm on the north side of Columbus, Ohio. Milan is a pioneer in the urban growing scene of the city and manages his own crop-share program. Commissioned for Abinta Kabir Foundation. A young girl at the Abinta Kabir School in Dhaka, Bangladesh reads from the HerStory book — tales of Bengali female superheroes throughout history. On August 5, 2018 renowned photographer and activist Shahidul Alam gave an interview to Al Jazeera regarding the ongoing student protests for road safety in Dhaka. During the interview he described the present government as “unelected”. A few hours later he was forcibly taken from his home. The following day he was charged under section 57 (2) of the ICT Act stating that he used media and fabricated information to instigate violence. He has been denied bail multiple times and as of November 13, 2018 he was still being held in jail. Photos from a protest for his immediate release in Shahbag, Dhaka on the 100th day of his imprisonment. Kids play in the water near their homes on a char near Gaibandha, Bangladesh. Chars, shifting riverine islands, have always been precarious habitations during the monsoon season. In less than two months many on this particular char expect that the water will be waist deep in their homes. Instead of hoping that the floods won’t come, they just get ready to leave. On July 29th, 2018, two college-age students were killed by an over- speeding bus on Airport Road in Dhaka. The following week high school age students peacefully occupied the streets demanding safer roads and justice for the victims. The students created checkposts and forced all vehicles to show a valid driver’s licenses andcar registration. By the sixth day of protest violent clashes began occurring between the students and the government backed Chhatra Leauge, leading to a display of brute force that eventually ended the protests. In March 2018 multiple news outlets ran stories about Bangalore, a southern city of India, being the next major metro on the verge of running out of drinking water. Government officials noted that “peripheral” areas of the city” are dependent on tankers for drinking water, and these tankers get their supply from borewells that are increasing in depth. The reality is that central resident and business rely on tankers, and have already learned to live tank to tank. Collaboration with Shamsul Palash, documenting environmental injustices in Kamrangirchar (an industrial/waste area southwest of Dhaka city). Here, women cover their mouth and nose as they walk across a bridge over a channel of burning trash. Shamsul Palash, an environmentalist from Dhaka, looks out over burning garbage in Kamrangirchar. He notes that 20 years ago this area was farmland. Now, he estimates one would have to dig for ten meters through garbage before reaching the soil. Commissioned for The Culture Trip. Women outside of a St Mary’s Basilica in Bangalore, India. Women along the North Sikkim Highway, near the Dik Chhu river. They are part of a team repairing damage due to a landslide, using cement to build up a foundation around the exposed boulders. Landslides have always occurred during the monsoon in the northeastern state of India, but many have noted the outcomes are increasingly worse. The women said that compared to last year the rains have lasted longer, with quick and intense downpours still happening at the end of September.