Charlene has photographed humanitarian and advocacy stories in Iraq, Malaysia, Denmark, and Singapore. She brings adaptability, teamwork, adeptness at cross-cultural communication, and deep respect for the people she works with on assignment. Full bio here.
Contact: charlene.winfred@gmail.com | +65 9376 0290 | On Linkedin
KURDISTAN, IRAQ
Buthena’s Salon (Iraq, 2019)
Buthena (centre) escaped home in Iraq’s Salahuddin province when ISIS came to destroy it. Pregnant with her third child, she took refuge with relatives in Baghdad to have her baby. Years later, she travelled to join her family in the northern Iraqi displacement camp that was home, only to be abandoned by her husband after having baby #4. Jobless, with four mouths to feed, Buthena started a salon business (the only one in a camp of 10,000) so women could reclaim a cherished ritual in their dire new normalcy… and created another refuge for the displaced women in her community.
Client: Preemptive Love Coalition, USA
Full story: A Hair Salon Inside a Refugee Camp
CENTRAL IRAQ
Dr Abdulqadir (Iraq, 2019)
Dr Abdulqadir treats patients in one of the last towns to be freed from ISIS’ occupation in 2017. The land and its surrounds are full of uncleared bombs and mines, and life is hard for many reasons, with one major reason being a lack of infrastructure and basic healthcare. In the middle of a consultation, the power—which means lights and air conditioning on that sweltering 40+ degree day—went out. This is a reality of life in this community on the eastern bank of the Tigris river… and in most of Iraq. Electricity, and all the modern equipment and conveniences powered by it, simply cannot be taken for granted. Dr. Abdulqadir wasn’t fazed. Like the doctors who make the frequently treacherous journey across the Tigris everyday to do this work, he continued the rest of his examination with whatever illumination he had at hand: daylight, and his smartphone’s flash.
Client: Preemptive Love Coalition, USA
Full story: Healing His Community from the Wounds of ISIS
PHILIPPINES
Philippine Eagle Foundation (Philippines, 2022)
Andi Baldonado is the Philippine Eagle Foundation’s (PEF) Development Manager. I interviewed Andi in 2022, when the Foundation celebrated its 35th anniversary. Andi spoke to me about the struggles, the rewards, and the mission that enriched her life.
Client: Our Better World
Full story: A Bird’s Eye View on Conservation and Life
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
My Inspiring Journey (Malaysia, 2023)
My Inspiring Journey is a special needs school which aims to empower individuals with learning differences, no matter their abilities and socio-economic backgrounds. Their Kuala Lumpur campus focuses on equipping adults with autism with skills to navigate and maximise their potential in daily and professional life.
Client: Our Better World
Full story: MIJ Hub: Shades of the Same Spectrum
SINGAPORE
Green Volunteers (Singapore, 2023)
Pasir Ris Park’s Green Volunteers, a group which has been greening the community for over 25 years in the east of Singapore. Led by outspoken, passionate conservation advocate Grant Pereira, the Green Volunteers continue doing what they do best: planting trees to protect the earth.
Client: Our Better World, Singapore
Full story: Wild About Gardening: The Green Volunteers of Pasir Ris
KURDISTAN, IRAQ
Amouna (Iraq, 2019)
Amouna kisses her granddaughter during a lull in an afternoon of work, surrounded by sacks of cotton and fabric. Amouna is an internally displaced person, who fled home in Iraq’s Salahuddin province when ISIS arrived in 2015. In a tent that is also her home — in a displacement camp in northern Iraq — she feeds her family with a business making doshaks, the floor cushions that are common to Iraqi homes. In a camp of 10,000 or more, making this practical everyday furniture means Amouna has a sustainable business that provides food on the table, and a foundation for their aspirations.
Client: Preemptive Love Coalition, USA
Full story: Cotton, Fabric, Needle, and Thread: The Materials of Independence
KURDISTAN, IRAQ
The Gift of Water (Iraq, 2019)
Children from an informal displacement camp in northern Iraq. The camp houses 40 Yazidi familes that fled their ancestral homeland when ISIS attempted genocide on them in 2014. Unlike formal camps, which are built with infrastructure like sewage and water piping, these makeshift camps have only what residents can afford to cobble together.
Client: Preemptive Love Coalition, USA
Full story: How You’re Providing Life-Giving Water to Thousands
SINJAR, NORTHWESTERN IRAQ
Qolo (Iraq, 2019)
Qolo, a Yazidi farmer, tends to the seedlings of his freshly planted crop — cucumbers and okra among others — against the backdrop of his destroyed family home. The Yazidi settlements around Sinjar mountain in northeastern Iraq were decimated in 2014 when ISIS swept into the area with the intention to wage genocide against the Yazidi. Rebuilding is still in progress, as the land is slowly cleared so the Yazidi people can return to the lands they have lived on and farmed for generations. Qolo and his brothers now live in the city of Sinjar, making the drive to their farm, which is just outside Sinjar city limits.
Client: Preemptive Love Coalition, USA
Full stories: Preemptive Love Journal – Vol 6.
KURDISTAN, IRAQ
Saaid and Nada are going home! (Iraq, 2019)
An off-the-cuff visit several months after the original story of Saaid (background, far left) and Nada’s (background, far right) business success, revealed that the couple had saved enough to go back to their town in Iraq’s Salahuddin province (destroyed by ISIS in 2015) to rebuild their home and restart their lives.
Theirs is a story that highlights how vital jobs are for those displaced by conflict, persecution, the climate emergency, and other disasters. Jobs rebuild lives.
For a humanitarian, Saaid and Nada’s monumental success in doing that quintessential human thing — going home — is best expressed by their neighbours’ kids rambunctious joy. This is exactly why we do this work.
Client: Preemptive Love Coalition, USA
Original story: The Importance of Work in Building a Future of Peace
charlene winfred 