A Liberian Red Cross Society Safe and Dignified Burials team removes a body from a house in Freetown, Liberia. For the photographer, Victor Lacken, the photo is about anticipation. “I cased the building,” he says. “I knew where they were going to come out. What I didn’t know was that a curious neighbour would be watching from above.”
Once inside their protective clothing, only their eyes are visible. Here, a member of a Safe and Dignified Burials team gets suited up with help from a fellow team member.
“I captured this photo of two burial team members as they walked to pray for someone who had died during the Ebola outbreak,” says photographer Victor Lacken. “At a time when people were not allowed to touch, this was the safest way to do so.”
“When I take a photo I am constantly moving to find that best angle, such as the reflection in the water in this photo,” says Lacken.
In places where conflict or crisis means basic services are scarce, the use of data is saving lives. But protecting people’s physical well-being, experts say, is also about protecting their digital profile in cyberspace.
As a biologist who responds to emergencies for the Spanish Red Cross, Eva Turró has found her place in the humanitarian world, raising awareness about the life-saving link between health and hygiene in the wake of calamity.
As humanitarian groups have rushed to embrace new technologies, biometric data such as eye, finger and palm scans have become a common method for humanitarian organizations to track aid during emergencies. But is the humanitarian sector fully ready to protect this most personal form of data?
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