Western Sahara
Women outside her tent
Sahrawi women have historically held important social roles as family educators and community managers. In traditional nomadic life, women managed encampments while men traveled with herds, positions that continue to shape family dynamics and gender relations in refugee communities.
Making sweet tea
Sahrawi tea ceremony, a central tradition of hospitality. The ritual preparation and sharing of tea represents the generous spirit and strong sense of solidarity that defines Sahrawi culture, even in displacement.
Women cleaning dishes
Sahrawi society was traditionally structured around tribes that continue to hold cultural significance despite decades of exile and shifts in political organization.
First Family Visits
The Sahrawi people are a nomadic ethnic group of Arab and Amazigh descent whose identity is deeply rooted in the desert territory of Western Sahara. For decades, many Sahrawi families have lived separated by conflict—divided between Moroccan-occupied territories and refugee camps in Algeria.
Daily life 2
The Sahrawi people have lived as refugees since the 1970s, their traditional nomadic territories in Western Sahara remain divided by political conflict. After 50 years, a potential resolution with Morocco and backed by the U.N. Security Council may allow the region to act "autonomously".
Camel herders
Historically, Sahrawis were nomadic Bedouins who herded camels and goats across these territories. Colonial borders imposed in the 20th century disrupted traditional migration patterns and severed communities from their ancestral grazing lands.
La Marqueta, a salsa revival
A community in Spanish Harlem uses salsa and live music to encourage the revival of La Marqueta, a marketplace established in the early 1900's by Puerto Rican migrants.
Michael Kamber | Military Censorship | Winner of POYi Award of Excellence
Iraq War photographer, Mike Kamber, shares never published photographs. "The reality of the war versus the war that people saw in the newspapers and magazines, it's a very different reality," said Kamber.
PROJECT REPORT: De Tu Papá/ From Your Father
Marco Aurelio, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico shares his struggles working as a day laborer while his family live on with out him.