Arlette Bashizi

Youth and women’s issues, health, culture and environment.

Being a journalist was my childhood dream. After finishing high school, I started to work in a radio station in the administrative department. While working there I was learning how to realise reportage, but I noticed that people were listening to radio less than looking at images when reading articles. And that is how photography came up as one of the good options to live my childhood dream, denouncing social injustice and giving a voice though my camera to my subject.

My first assignment was coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Congo, and how it affected daily life in Goma. I photographed my little sister studying at home using a light of a mobile phone, as there was a power cut and school was closed, and how young people in my community came together to fight against Covid-19. What I learned is that a great story many times starts at home, and we just have to look with attention to every single detail happening around us.

The assignment that left the biggest mark on me was an investigation about sexual abuse by a powerful priest, because it brings out a story and a reality which no-one could think about in my community. Any subject which changes someone’s life after I document it always has a special place in my heart.

The biggest lesson is that I’ve learned is that I’ll never stop learning. What I’ve learned also is that photography is more than taking pictures; it’s more about humanity and connection, bringing people a moment you lived while shooting, and that emotion you felt.