TUFS Students Win Prize in UN 'My Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)' Student Photography Contest

June 9, 2017

Kamizawa Nobuko (3 ^rd year postgraduate student in languages and culture studies) was awarded a prize in the 'My Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)' Student Photography Contest (sponsored by the United Nations Information Centre and Sophia University).

The winning piece was titled "Indigenous Children in Bangladesh", and depicts children of the Garo people, a minority group who were the focus of Kamizawa's research while investigating disasters in the northern borderlands of Bangladesh.

The contest's 622 entrant pieces came from 47 countries across 5 continents, including Japan, Brazil, Peru, and Afghanistan.

The winning and runner up pieces are being displayed at the following times and locations:

Date & time: 26 ^th October (Wed) - 18 ^th November 2016* (Fri) 9:00 - 17:00
*excluding 1 ^st November

Place: Sophia University Yotsuya Campus Central Library

(10 minutes' walk from JR/subway Yotsuya station)

-free entry, no reservation needed
For more details on the winning entrants can be viewed here:

http://www.unic.or.jp/news_press/info/21151/?lang=en
https://www.facebook.com/UN.Japan/videos/1180138315397341/ (Japanese)

Comments from Kamizawa

I am honoured to have received a prize in the United Nations Information Centre sponsored ' My Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)' Student Photography Contest. My winning piece was one I shot in the northern-central region boarder zone of Bangladesh whilst studying the disaster response of the Garo people. This was an investigation focused on village dwellers, who when asked "now that the rice fields have been flooded, how will you buy more seedlings?" turned as bleak and heavy as the clouded sky. On my way back, I was encouraged when I bumped into a group of Garo children on their way home from school, and I took the shot. Perhaps the Garo people, despite being forced into hard times by disasters, carry on with their lives for the sake of encouraging their children's growth to adulthood. The theme of this photography contest, 'sustainable development goals', consists of 17 goals and 169 targets. The photo reminds me of goal 4- 'high quality education for all'; goal 10- 'equality of people and nations'; and goal 14- 'concrete measures against climate change', which overlap with the theme on my research. I think that using the opportunity of this prize to pursue ethnographic research on the Garo people further still will assist with the achievement of these SDGs.