patrick rohr.

photojournalist

They are fighting for decent living conditions: men and women who are attracted to the same sex or feel they were born in the wrong body. Homosexual and transgender people in Uganda almost had to give up their lives because they were different.

As recently as the start of this decade, the government under president Yoweri Museweni, under pressure from the free churches that are very powerful in the country (and often controlled by the US), wanted to introduce the death penalty for gay, lesbian and transgender people. Only after western countries - again also including the US under Barack Obama - threatened to withdraw significant financial support for the country did the government and parliament back down.

Anyone convicted of homosexual practices currently receives a twenty-year prison sentence. Relatives or landlords who do not denounce gays, lesbians or transgender people face seven years in jail. Rainbow Support Network fights for better living conditions for these people.

Ethiopia.

Thanks to the SKY project, young people in Ethiopia learn professional skills in a three-month training programme. After that they can find a job or start their own business more easily. I visited this project on behalf of the Swiss development organisation Helvetas in 2017.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières MSF.

On behalf of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), I visited the Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, the largest refugee camp in the world. Since 2017, almost one million people have been living in an area where there used to be large forests and a few small villages. It is a challenging situation not only for the refugees, but also for the people who have been living there for a long time.

Nepal.

One year after the devastating earthquakes in Nepal, I visited the little village of Marbu at the foot of the Himalaya. The two earthquakes in 2015 destroyed Marbu completely. Helvetas supported the villagers with building new and earthquake resilient houses.

Zimbabwe.

People with HIV and Aids in Zimbabwe can get free treatment at the Ruedi Lüthy Foundation's Newlands Clinic in Harare. I've visited the clinic and its patients several times for the last ten years. In 2024, the clinic celebrated its 20th anniversary. Here you can see the pictures I shot for the anniversary magazine.