"My visit to the tiny island of Madaripara on May 10th gave me a great insight into the unique partnership of Friendship and the local community. 

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Whilst on the island I met Nurjamal. Nurjamal was from another island but he had visited  Madaripara and was helping work on the fields. I found Nurjamal to be a fascinating man, he was a real character and had great pride in how the community was coping with the devastation of the growing number of floods. I could see in Nurjamal a real joy, a confidence and a feeling of hope which was incredible bearing in mind the anxiety and fear that floods would bring.

 

This raised so many questions in my mind because I could feel the pride and hope in almost everyone that I met in the village and I wanted to focus on these questions in my portrait of Nurjamal, I wanted to create a puzzle which would ask the question of how despite such fear and desperation such feelings of hope and happiness could flourish."

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Words by the artist, James Earley.