Arlette Bashizi

So grateful to the @worldpressphoto for this opportunity, can’t wait to learn from all mentors who will be part of this. Also a special thanks to everyone who nominated me on this: @finbarroreilly @mikkotakkunen @pdicampo @meghanlooram , couldn’t make it without your support. Once again congratulations to all the selected photographers.🥳 #Reposter @worldpressphoto ・・・ 📢 Introducing the 2024 Joop Swart Masterclass participants. The Joop Swart Masterclass is World Press Photo’s best-known educational program for emerging photographers in the field of documentary photography, photojournalism, and visual storytelling. We are proud to present the 2024 participants (from left to right): - Ali Jadallah (@alijadallah66 ), Palestine - Ali Zaraay (@alizaraay ), Egypt - Arlette Bashizi (@arty_bashizi ), Democratic Republic of the Congo - Belal Khaled (@belalkh ), Palestine - Richard Pierrin (@richard.pierrin ), Haiti - Fernanda Pineda Palencia (@fernipineda ), Colombia - Ri (immortality_of_the_ant), Myanmar - Kiana Hayeri (@kianahayeri ), Iran-Canada - Myriam Boulos (@myriamboulos ), Lebanon - Samar Abu Elouf (@samarabuelouf ), Palestine - Serhii Korovayny (@serhiikorovayny ), Ukraine - Taniya Sarkar (@that_i_havent_seen_yet ), India Stay tuned because over the next few days we will be introducing each participant by sharing a selection of their work. _ After a three-year hiatus, the Joop Swart Masterclass returns this year, with a focus on the MENA region, thanks to funding from the Porticus Foundation. 🔗 Find out more about the #JSM2024 via the link in our bio.

Each year we name four finalists in addition to our grant winner in order to recognize the important work being done to tell aftermath stories around the globe. For the 2024 post-conflict grant, thanks to an anonymous donor, we were also able to offer a $5,000 grant to a “First Finalist.” The recipient of that award: Arlette Bashizi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, for her project “Survivors.” “Survivors” is a project about the resilient struggle of women living in conflict zones in Africa, from Ethiopia to Congo DRC. Survivors documents personal stories of survivors of sexual violence during the civil war that erupted in the Tigray region of Ethiopia and the ongoing war in the North Kivu province in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo and their resilience in rebuilding their lives despite all the stigma surrounding them. Congratulations @arty_bashizi ! #theaftermathproject #warisonlyhalfthestory #documentaryphotography #photography #opensociety #jonathanloganfamilyfoundation

I’m so excited and humbled to see this project « Survivors » I did in Ethiopia receiving the honorable mention in the @worldpressphoto contest. I dedicate this award to the extraordinary women who are working hard to rebuild their lives despite the atrocities they went through, thank you for allowing me to tell your stories. To the local organization and the congregation of « Daughter of Charity » who are supporting these women with training and psychological and thank you for welcoming us. To the brilliant @KatharineHoureld , who has written these difficult stories with a unique sensitivity ,to @pritheeva , thank you for your amazing edit and for putting me on this. When I remember how I started photography 4years ago then receiving this recognition today, i can’t even find right to express how I’m feeling. I’m so grateful to everyone who have been supporting my work, thank you for all the advices orientations and encouragement I got since the day one, to @finbarroreilly and the whole professional family. #worldpressphoto2024

🔥 ARLETTE BASHIZI! 🔥 Arlette Bashizi @arty_bashizi was born in Goma in 1999. She lives and works there as a photojournalist and documentary photographer. Her documentary approach focuses on capturing events related to her region, located in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has been plagued by violence for decades. Her body of work comprises images illustrating the health, economic, environmental, political, and security situation in her region, highlighting the hardships faced by women and children, the exploitation of the region’s abundant natural resources, the challenges of climate change, and the daily lives of its inhabitants. She’s an active contributor to several international media outlets. She has exhibited her photographs in numerous countries and contributed to projects such as the Carmignac Photojournalism Award and the World Press Photo Contest. Image: Arlette Bashizi by © Daniel Bitita

AIDS CREEPS BACK IN PARTS OF ZAMBIA, A YEAR AFTER U.S. CUTS TO HIV ASSISTANCE A once-robust H.I.V. treatment and prevention system, credited with saving hundreds of thousands of lives, has begun to crumble. Saulo Kasekela died of AIDS on March 7, in a small town called Mpongwe in the copper belt of northern Zambia. He was a 37-year-old security guard, admitted to the mission hospital two days earlier. After his body was wheeled out of the men’s ward, a nurse set aside his chest X-ray, a clouded smear of lungs devoured by tuberculosis, a hallmark of advanced, untreated H.I.V. infection. A scrawled doctor’s note indicated the X-ray should be saved for medical students. Of the eight patients in the ward at day, four had AIDS. Lewis Chifuta, 33, was bone thin, feverish and barely able to recognize his siblings when they reached his bedside. A year ago, in Mpongwe, there was one case like this each month, or maybe two. In January this year, there were 28 new cases; in February, 28 more; in March, seven more. During President Trump’s first month in office, his administration upended much of the flagship global H.I.V. program that had saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Zambia. The Zambian government went into emergency mode, desperate to ensure that people with the virus could continue to receive lifesaving medications. With @snolenglobal reporting from Zambia for the @nytimes . Link in bio for the full story with the great edit from @mcmarbled . #globalhealth #usaid #hiv #zambia #reportagespotlight

DIABETES,OVERLOOKED AND UNCHECKED, POSES NEW RISKS IN AFRICA As deaths from diabetes start to rival those from infectious threats like malaria, a new form of the condition linked to malnutrition is surfacing in patients who can afford neither screening nor care. The sun has not quite risen when Dr. Paulette Djeugoue arrives at her diabetes clinic in northern Cameroon. The wooden benches outside are already full with patients, some of whom have spent the night there, waiting. Dr. Djeugoue is the only diabetes specialist for thousands of miles, and her patients come from villages scattered across the north; some have crossed borders from Nigeria or Chad. She unlocks the door and settles in, with a nurse by her side to translate the half-dozen languages her patients speak. She won’t leave until the sun has set. Even with the throng of patients at her one-woman clinic, Dr. Djeugoue knows she is seeing just a tiny fraction of those who need care. An estimated 75 percent of people with diabetes in Cameroon have no idea they have the disease; the portion is even higher in the poorer and more rural parts of the country, like this one. There is a striking epidemiological shift underway here in Cameroon and across much of Africa: People now face as much risk of dying from a noncommunicable disease such as diabetes as they do an infectious one, such as malaria. Link in bio for the full story with @snolenglobal reporting from Northern and Central of Cameroon for the @nytimes . Thanks to @mcmarbled for the edit. #globalhealth #diabetes #cameroon #reportagespotlight #nytimes

THE RACE TO STOP WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING IN AFRICA In Nigeria, customs officers and conservationists are confronting the grim impacts of the $20 billion trade. From pangolin scales to elephant tusks, from African gray parrots to manatees, the illicit trade in wildlife products and live animals is one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises in the world. The global black market for illegally harvested wildlife is estimated to be at least $20 billion a year. Last year, I traveled to Nigeria with @yudhijitbhattacharjee to report on the trafficking of apes out of Africa — a growing problem, driven in recent years by social media videos of chimpanzees and gorillas being kept as pets. While there, we learned about Bili, a baby gorilla who narrowly avoided such a fate. But the selling of chimps, gorillas and bonobos makes up only a small portion of the illegal wildlife business. In one of the largest such seizures, officials intercepted 196 bags filled with scales, possibly representing as many as 38,000 pangolins, which are also known as scaly anteaters. A major factor behind the demand for wildlife products is an array of beliefs about their medicinal powers: The perceived health benefits of rhino horn, for instance, made it more valuable than gold a decade ago, fetching around $30,000 per pound at its peak. Pangolin scales, in traditional Asian medicine, are believed to have the power to treat a variety of ills, from abscesses to cancer. Link in bio for the full story for the @nytmag with thanks to @shannonsimon for the edit. #documentaryphotography #animalstrafficking #nigeria #nytmag #reportagespotlight

Arlette Bashizi 🇨🇩 (@arty_bashizi ) is a Congolese photographer currently based in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. She works in documentary photography and photojournalism, and focuses on health, environment, and culture. #RuumSpotlight She won the James Foley Award in 2025 for her impactful photojournalism. Through her work, she tells stories of conflict, extraction, and climate change especially around women and youth. Discover Bashizi ⭐ on 54Ruum.com #54Ruum #ArletteBashizi #CongolesePhotography #TheRuumAfrica

HOW CAMEROON FOUGHT TO SAVE ITS MALARIA PROGRAM AFTER U.S. CUT CRITICAL FUNDING When the Trump administration slashed foreign aid, it gutted a program that had reduced malaria deaths world wide. In northern Cameroon, health workers tried to protect children in one last rainy season. Abdul Aziz Adamou carried his son Mohammadou urgently through the crowded hospital, and the child did not stir. A wisp of a 3-year-old, Mohammadou was so sick he barely flinched when a nurse pricked his finger and squeezed out a drop of blood for a malaria test. His mother, Nafisa, looked on, her long blue veil fluttering as she shifted nervously. The day before, he was vomiting and soaked in the sweat of fever; in the night, convulsions pulled his small limbs rigid. At first light, his parents climbed on the family motorcycle and drove him 20 miles on pitted dirt tracks to a hospital in the town of Maroua in northern Cameroon. The malaria test was positive. Within minutes, a health aide gave him an injection of artesunate, the World Health Organization’s recommended first-line treatment for the disease. Over the next 24 hours, Mohammadou was given two more injections and became alert enough to express his displeasure. Mr. Adamou grinned, scooping him up to hold him still. After three days, he was well enough to go home. The lifesaving drug was provided by the United States, through a program that has cut malaria death rates dramatically here and across Africa. In February, the Trump administration shut down much of that program, saying most foreign aid was wasted. The supply of artesunate dwindled. By the time Mohammadou got it, a few weeks ago, it had become nearly as precious as gold in northern Cameroon. With @snolenglobal we travelled to the Sahel in the far North of Cameroon reporting on the impact of USAID cut on malaria for @nytimes . Link in bio for the full story, thanks to @mcmarbled for the edit. #globalhealth #malaria #cameroon #reportagespotlight #nytimes

CONGOLESE RAPE SURVIVORS SEARCH IN VAIN FOR MEDICINE AFTER USAID CUTS In eastern Congo, where rape is widespread, the cancellation of USAID funding for PEP kits has left many victims vulnerable, according to nearly 50 interviews. On Aug. 26, fighting was closing in on Rebecca’s town of Tchomia, a cluster of small cement and adobe homes on the shores of Lake Albert. It was too dangerous to sell fish at the market, so the mother of four went to the forest to search for bananas to feed her children. Two men accosted and raped her — almost casually, she said, “as if I was nothing.” After they left, Rebecca said, she lay for a while on the damp ground in shock and pain. Then, remembering the advice of the community health care worker, she recounted staggering for more than four miles to the closest clinic, the Centre de Santé de Tchomia, where splashes of pink flowers cluster around a neatly stenciled sign, emblazoned with the logos of USAID and the International Rescue Committee (IRC). But there were no PEP kits left, Rebecca said, an account confirmed by IRC, which said it has since tried to source medications itself. An apologetic nurse told her she should try the general hospital, but Rebecca said she could hear gunfire and explosions in the distance. She had recently found bullet casings under the tree where she hung her family’s laundry. She’d left her abusive husband during her last pregnancy. Scared to leave her children alone for any longer, she decided to go home. “I lay awake the whole night,” she recalled. “I couldn’t even cry in case I started to panic. Then people would know I was raped.” She comforted her children — bright-eyed boys of 10, 8 and 6, and a chubby daughter of 3 — who Rebecca said were having nightmares about the violence. She never made it to the hospital. Last month with @katharinehkenya we travelled to Ituri province where we spoke with survivors of sexual abuse and their struggles accessing health care since the USAID fund cut for @washingtonpost . Link in bio for the full story, thankful to @nataliajimenez for the edit. #sexualabusesurvivor #congo #ituri #documentaryphotography #reportagespotlight

CONGOLESE RAPE SURVIVORS SEARCH IN VAIN FOR MEDICINE AFTER USAID CUTS In eastern Congo, where rape is widespread, the cancellation of USAID funding for PEP kits has left many victims vulnerable, according to nearly 50 interviews. Nadine was a top student at her high school in eastern Congo. Then, in April, she was gang-raped by four men as she was gathering firewood for her family. The 17-year-old set off on a frantic search for help — first to her local clinic, where there were no rape kits left, and then to the hospital, where she was told that none of the medication she needed was available. It took her several days to scrape together enough money to travel the few miles to neighboring Uganda for medical care. By the time she got there, it was too late: Her tests showed she was HIV-positive and pregnant. “I sat down with my friend and cried,” said Nadine, who like others in this article is being identified only by her first name. Sexual violence is endemic in this part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it has become a weapon of war in a region that has rarely known peace over the past 30 years. Women and girls are raped in the forest, by the roadside, in their homes, anywhere they are vulnerable, by men and boys using guns, knives or sticks, secure in their impunity. Last month with @katharinehkenya we travelled to Ituri province where we spoke with survivors of sexual abuse and their struggles accessing health care since the USAID fund cut for @washingtonpost . Link in bio for the full story, thankful to @nataliajimenez for the edit. #sexualabusesurvivor #congo #ituri #documentaryphotography #reportagespotlight

The 2020 conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia lasted two years, leading to approximately 600,000 deaths with millions more facing extreme famine. Although exact figures are difficult to confirm, a comprehensive study estimates that more than 100,000 women may have been victims of sexual violence over the course of the war. Due to societal prejudice and stigmatization surrounding rape and sexual assault, many of these women struggle in isolation, rejected by their families and communities. Seen here, in Mekele, Ethiopia: 1. Shila (32), a mother of three, ran a hairdressing salon before Eritrean soldiers invaded her town and repeatedly raped her for three months. As a consequence, Shila became pregnant and gave birth to a boy, but her other children do not know that her mother was assaulted. Shila is uncertain if she will ever be strong enough to tell them the truth. Mekele, Tigray region, Ethiopia, 2 November 2023. 2. Bedla Salomon (center), cooking instructor, shows her students how to make pizza during a culinary class at the Daughters of Charity Training Center, on 2 November 2023, which provide psychological support and job training to survivors of sexual violence. 3. Shila participates in a cooking class with other women at the Daughters of Charity training center, on 2 November 2023. ‘Survivors’ by Arlette Bashizi (@arty_bashizi ), for @washingtonpost was awarded an honorable mention in the 2024 World Press Photo Contest. Arlette Bashizi is a Congolese documentary photographer and photojournalist whose work focuses on topics related to health, environment and culture, through a human-centered approach. Arlette is also a member of the African Photojournalism Database (APJD), a directory of emerging and professional African visual journalists created by World Press Photo and @everydayafrica . – 🔗We encourage all African professional photojournalists and documentary photographers to submit their work to the #WPPh2026 Contest. We want the contest to be a platform where a multiplicity of voices are heard. Enter for free through the link in our bio.