Polish aid

A shortage of suitable medical staff, chiefly doctors, is a major problem in Tanzania. In a country with over 50 million people, there are just around 100 surgeons. In Tanzania, many surgeries regarded as simple in medicine, like uncomplicated C-sections or hernia procedures, are performed by medical assistants.

This is an online exhibition of the photos awarded in the “Lens on Development” contest organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Geographic Polska in its 2017 and 2019 editions. The contest has been organised biennially since 2011.

For years, through the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been co-funding scholarship programmes for students from countries covered by Polish development assistance programme. The Stefan Banach Scholarschip Programme and Ignacy Łukasiewicz Scholarship Programme are implemented by means of the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA).

This year’s humanitarian project run by the Polish Embassy in Amman aims to counteract the spread of infectious diseases in the camp-city of Zaatari.

For decades, the Kilimanjaro region was the most famous coffee growing region in Tanzania. Coffee cultivation flourished thanks to fertile volcanic soil covering the slopes of the mountain coupled with favourable climate. However, rapid population growth and adverse development on the global coffee market led to a gradual, but significant fall in its production.

The coronavirus pandemic first hit Palestine in March 2020, when some tourists staying at Bethlehem were diagnosed with having contracted the virus. This is when both the country’s healthcare system and economy started to have problems. It was mainly because the pandemic struck the pilgrimage tourism – one of the most important sources of profit for Palestinians.

In Dakar and Joal, Franciscan Missionaries of Mary run vocational schools for girls. The series of vocational workshops is dedicated to women aged 17-26. Young girls are taught how to use sewing machines. They can practise their sewing skills.

Real flames, high temperature, heat radiation, and hazardous substance emissions. Such were the conditions Ukrainian firefighters had to face during the training they completed in September.

Burj Barajneh is a camp located on the southern outskirts of Beirut, dating back to 1949, when it was created for Palestinian refugees fleeing from the armed conflict with Israel.

“In a new room, we can have individual sessions with our patients, uninterrupted by other people. It’s also a perfect place for group work because it is so spacious,” says happily Olga Pronina, a psychologist working with trauma victims in eastern Ukraine.