#PhotosForHOPE: Our World Humanitarian Day Photo Contest

Posted: August 5, 2021

Clean air. Safe drinking water. Nutritious food on the table. Access to health care.

The changing climate has major consequences on our health. As the world heats up, extreme weather events like floods, hurricanes, and cyclones are becoming more frequent and deadly. Climate-related disasters destroy homes and health facilities, leaving essential services disrupted. Malnutrition is on the rise. Extreme heat and drought are causing crops to fail and freshwater supplies to dwindle, forcing people to flee their homes and livelihoods. Areas with weak health infrastructures are further devastated as vulnerable populations, health workers, and humanitarians face a challenge that threatens all of humanity.

For more information about climate change, read “How Does Climate Change Impact Human Health?” >

Click here for more information about the United Nation’s World Humanitarian Day campaign, #TheHumanRace >

Climate change is not a far-off hypothetical or an abstract theory. It’s here. And the race is on.

Photo of a man walking towards a mosque that is flooded and sliding into the ocean after an earthquake in Indonesia.
Photographer James Buck captured this beautiful but heartbreaking scene in Indonesia after a 7.5-magnitude earthquake in 2019. “I had never seen anything like the mosque that slid into the ocean after the earthquake in Indonesia,” he says. “Incredibly, worshipers still made the pilgrimage out into the waves to experience the beauty of the building that became part of the sea. It was a reminder how fragile and vulnerable human habitation is and how we need to take care of one another when disaster strikes.” Photo by James Buck for Project HOPE, 2019.

#PhotosForHOPE Photo Contest

This year, for World Humanitarian Day, Project HOPE is hosting a photo contest.

The contest

We’re asking anyone around the world who would like to participate to submit a photo that illustrates the impact of climate change on health. Are wildfires raging right outside your door, making it difficult for you to breathe if you leave the house without a mask? Are floods in your area blocking access to medical care for the people in your town? Are you still rebuilding your home after a natural disaster came through? Whether you are a photojournalist or hobbyist photographer, we want to see how the climate crisis is affecting people’s lives and health around the world.

The winning photo

We are delighted to announce that the winner of our 2021 World Humanitarian Day photo contest is Singapore-based photographer Chin Leong. Chin Leong’s photo, shot in IndoChina in June 2019, is a powerful depiction of the effects of climate change on human health.

The photo shows a young farmer boy trying to salvage whatever water there is in the midst of a drought. Climate change is causing more volatile weather globally, and resulting droughts can severely affect rural agriculture-dependent areas of the world.

A young farmer savaging water in the midst of a severe drought.
“Drought Boy.” Photo property of Chin Leong, 2019. Used by permission.

A special thank you to Chin Leong, and to everyone who submitted a photo to our contest. Your beautiful work is helping us all see the effects of climate change on health through real-life examples and from different angles.

How to submit a photo

*Submissions are closed.*

The winning photo will be displayed at Project HOPE’s annual event.

This year, our event will take place on October 12, on the rooftop terrace of the new International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.

Hurricane destruction in Bahamas with a boat overturned in the ocean.
Photographer James Buck shot this impactful aerial view of the destruction hurricane Dorian left behind in the Bahamas in 2019. “It’s hard to describe what it feels like to see civilization scrubbed out, knocked down and tossed around like scraps,” he says. “This harbor on a small cay off Abaco was full of sunken boats and smashed docks.” Photo by James Buck for Project HOPE, 2019.