Nearly three years ago, Alex Masi took a photograph of a little girl in Bhopal, that earned him the Photographers Giving Back Award - “a sum of $5,000 that went directly to the child, Poonam Jatev, and her family,†Kerri Macdonald wrote in the Lens blog of The New York Times.
“It changed her life,†Ms. Macdonald wrote.
“What I wanted to do was to find a long-term way where I could show the people outside what happens to this family,†Mr. Masi, born in Italy, told the Lens blog.
Today, Poonam “is a wide-eyed 8-year-old with a toothy grin,†Ms. Macdonald wrote. She just started her third year of school and aspires to be a teacher.
Mr. Masi believes he's been given a rare opportunity to show what it is like to grow up in Bhopal, a process he is documenting on his blog, “A Better Tomorrow: Poonam's Tale of Hope in Bhopal.â€
He intends to r eturn to Bhopal often for at least the next 10 years. The result will be Poonam's coming-of-age story, set in a period of change in Bhopal, where a German company is making a deal with the Indian government to airlift hundreds of tons of toxic material from a manufacturing plant that leaked 40 tons of methyl isocynate gas in December 1984. (Thousands of tons of contaminated ground will remain.)
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