UNICEF-Germany announces photo of the year

The winning image of UNICEF Germany's "Photo of the Year 2014" was taken by Insa Hagemann und Stefan Finger in April. For four weeks the duo travelled the Philippines to photograph children of sex tourism for their project titled "Wanna have love."

The pair's photograph shows a toddler named Divine. With a look of envy, the little girl stands aside from a group of other Filipino children who are playing in the foreground. Divine is pale-skinned, blond and stands out amongst the other children in Angeles City. Her father is an Autralian, who met her mother on the internet before travelling to the Philippines as a sex tourist. He wants nothing to do with the child that he left behind.

"I never had the feeling that Divine was cast out in her family," said Hagemann. "But on the street and in her neighborhood, the little girl was stigmatized for her appearances."

Discrimination in their own communities

In the Philippines, children with pale skin and blue eyes are automatically assumed to be the children of prostitutes and are discriminated against for no fault of their own. Often, the children's mothers aren't prostitutes and are in fact women who hoped that a relationship with an affluent foreigner would help them to escape their poverty-stricken life.

The winning photographers of this year's UNICEF award hope to stay in contact with the children and their families in the Philippines. "We carry the story of these children in our hearts," Finger said, who intends to return in 10 years to see what becomes of the children.

ksb/es (epd, KNA)