A Colombian woman, a shellfish picker working in the mangrove swamps, stands inside her wooden house in a stilt house area close to Tumaco, Colombia, 15 June 2010. Deep in the impenetrable labyrinth of mangrove swamps on the Pacific seashore, hundreds of people struggle everyday, searching and gathering a tiny shellfish called 'piangua'. Wading through sticky mud among the mangrove tree roots, facing the clouds of mosquitos, they pick up mussels hidden deep in mud, no matter of unbearable...
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A Colombian woman, a shellfish picker working in the mangrove swamps, stands inside her wooden house in a stilt house area close to Tumaco, Colombia, 15 June 2010. Deep in the impenetrable labyrinth of mangrove swamps on the Pacific seashore, hundreds of people struggle everyday, searching and gathering a tiny shellfish called 'piangua'. Wading through sticky mud among the mangrove tree roots, facing the clouds of mosquitos, they pick up mussels hidden deep in mud, no matter of unbearable tropical heat or strong rain. Although the shellfish pickers, mostly Afro-Colombians displaced by the Colombian armed conflict, take a high risk (malaria, poisonous bites,...), their salary is very low and keeps them living in extreme poverty.
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