Street kids and stray dogs redefine friendship in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
In early 2013, Australian photographer and animal rights advocate Sam Edmonds captured a series of heartwarming portraits. This group of homeless children and stray dogs are best friends in Bangladesh and rely on one another for survival, fun, intimacy and family.
Sam Edmonds found the boys and their pets during a trip to Bangladesh, in a park named Robindra Shorbod. He decided to capture their unique relationship in a photo project titled Robindro Boys. The boys, who are either orphans or have been separated from their families, struggle to survive by begging and selling plastic scrap, but they share all their food with their dogs.
In Bangladesh dog culling is a common practice whereby stray animals are picked up from the streets and inhumanely killed for fear of spreading rabies. Thanks to the efforts of Obhoyaronno, this has been terminated in Dhaka. Obhoyaronno controls stray dog populations through a Catch-Neuter-Vaccinate-Release program, or CNVR, meaning that instead of killing dogs who may or may not be infected with rabies, they capture and treat dogs before releasing them back to the exact place in which they were found.
This fear of rabies has unfortunately led to a phobia surrounding dogs and yet the boys of Robindra Shorbod have shown that compassion leads to no disease but wagging tails and a friend in waiting.
Even in the dire times that these friends live in, it indeed shimmers hope that they’ve found in each other to be what they were meant to be, innocent. They may not have gone to a school but they know this much is true.
~Image courtesy Sam Edmonds
Beautiful article and info. Those street kids are more humane than bulk of population of world. My heart goes out to them and their furry companions. How can I contribute in this noble effort?