3rd place
bronze star award
Nicola Longobardi
hong kong 
title
Prisoners of Heroin
Myanmar is the second world producer of heroin. Drugs are easy to find and very cheap.
Currently for the K.I.O. (Kachin Independence Organization), opium and its derivatives are the greatest threat for the survival of its population. If no solution is found to free this region of its drug problem, the Kachin population, which now has about 1.5 million people, will become a minority and in danger of extinction.
Due to the lack of interest from the Central Government to resolve this social plague, two organisations take actions but it seems only to be intended to punish the consumers.
K.I.A. (Kachin Independence Army) an ethnic army committed to fighting the Myanmar army for decades and a coalition of Christian churches gathered under the name of Pat Jasan , the Kachin Anti-drug Committee, started to patrol the streets of the cities and small towns of Kachin state chasing for junkies and open several rehab centres where the people captured by them must to spend months locked up in. The healing treatment offered in those rehabilitation centres are faith and abstinence. There is no medicine such as methadone or psychological treatment offered.
Several human rights organisations criticised the conditions of the rehabilitation center and the psychological impact of its treatment but the leaders of the organizations do not care about these protests. “Drug is a tough enemy and we must be harder to defeat it”. With these words they justify their actions and continue in their war on drugs.
He covered many important events in Asia such as “Occupy Central” in Hong Kong, the elections in 2015 in Myanmar, and the “War on Drugs” of president Duterte in the Philippines.
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entry description
In northern Myanmar, the depression, which was born out of decades of political and economic instability caused by the war between the Burmese government and the Kachin rebels, has resulted in a massive spread of heroin use among the local people of every age group.Myanmar is the second world producer of heroin. Drugs are easy to find and very cheap.
Currently for the K.I.O. (Kachin Independence Organization), opium and its derivatives are the greatest threat for the survival of its population. If no solution is found to free this region of its drug problem, the Kachin population, which now has about 1.5 million people, will become a minority and in danger of extinction.
Due to the lack of interest from the Central Government to resolve this social plague, two organisations take actions but it seems only to be intended to punish the consumers.
K.I.A. (Kachin Independence Army) an ethnic army committed to fighting the Myanmar army for decades and a coalition of Christian churches gathered under the name of Pat Jasan , the Kachin Anti-drug Committee, started to patrol the streets of the cities and small towns of Kachin state chasing for junkies and open several rehab centres where the people captured by them must to spend months locked up in. The healing treatment offered in those rehabilitation centres are faith and abstinence. There is no medicine such as methadone or psychological treatment offered.
Several human rights organisations criticised the conditions of the rehabilitation center and the psychological impact of its treatment but the leaders of the organizations do not care about these protests. “Drug is a tough enemy and we must be harder to defeat it”. With these words they justify their actions and continue in their war on drugs.
about the photographer
He grew up in Italy where he studied photojournalism at John Kaverdash Academy with Sandro Lovine. At age 25, he was a student of the well-known Beijing Culture and Languages University in Beijing and during that period he decided to dedicate his life to photography. During the years in Beijing (2010 -2017), he worked for many international magazines and newspapers such as “The New York Times”, “Financial Times”,“Al Jazeera”,” Il Corriere Della Sera”, “Internazionale”,” La Repubblica”. Additionally, he was for two years the photographer for the correspondent office in Beijing of Helsingin Sanomat.He covered many important events in Asia such as “Occupy Central” in Hong Kong, the elections in 2015 in Myanmar, and the “War on Drugs” of president Duterte in the Philippines.
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