We are so excited to announce this year’s winners of our annual United Planet Day Photo and Video Contest! We hold this contest every year to seek visual submissions that exemplify our mission of cross-cultural understanding, friendship, and supporting one another in our own communities and abroad. Without further ado…
Congratulations to our Grand Prize winner, Anisha Mehreja, for her photo entitled “The Inca Beauty.” Anisha’s beautiful photo depicts two volunteers, a mother and son, looking out over Machu Picchu in Peru. Read an excerpt from her description of the photograph below.
The Inca Beauty: This is a picture of two volunteers, mother and son, who both worked with local children at a school [in Peru]. This photo captures their close relationship and bond throughout the trip at Machu Picchu. They are both, together as family, admiring the beauty of Machu Picchu and the high significance it has in Peru’s history. Not only does this picture help capture the bond a mother and son should have, and how this trip brought them close together, but it shows part of the Incan history. In the background of this photo, you may recognize the Incan stone on top of the grass. In Peru, the Incas had a huge role in developing architecture with the Inca stone….Machu Picchu is an extremely sacred place in Peru, where many tourists visit day to day. Not only is it beautiful, but it demonstrates the Incas’ history and their amazing abilities and impact they had on Peru. This is why this picture means so much to me, and has such as strong significance.
Anisha will receive a free two-week Quest to the destination of her choice. We are so excited to be able to send her abroad to volunteer!
Our runner-up is Virginia Becker, for her photograph entitled “Life After Genocide.”
Life After Genocide: In the late 1980’s, Uspantan, Guatemala was among several Mayan communities that were subject to a horrific genocide. Over 40,000 adults were murdered. This left the children to care for themselves. As a result, there are very few people over the age of 40 living in Uspantan. I traveled to Uspantan and took portraits of over 500 Mayan children. I brought a professional quality printer with me and provided each family with a hard copy picture of their child. None of these children had ever been photographed before. This picture shows a woman in her thirties.
We also have one honorable mention this year: Allan Jay Quesada for his photograph, “Unity in a Child’s Hands.”
Unity in a Child’s Hands: The image is a photo of my niece I took when she was making paper dolls inspired by Southeast Asian countries. She loves making paper dolls and she’s also amazed on the differences of the costumes ASEANs wear. I also explained to her that despite the differences in costumes ASEANs have, they all have similar goals of keeping peace and helping each other that keep them united.
Congratulations to all our winners and to everyone who participated in our United Planet Day events! We look forward to next year’s celebrations, and hope to see your photos next year in the 2014 contest!
ABOUT UNITED PLANET
United Planet is a non-profit organization with a mission to create a global community, one relationship at a time. Established in 2001, United Planet offers volunteer abroad, virtual internships, internships abroad, gap year volunteering, and global virtual exchange in more than 40 countries.
