Jonathan – the boy from the waste dump ::: Chone / Ecuador 2008

Together with his mother Elda and his 7-year-old sister Yilda, 13-year-old Jonathan lives on the waste dump of Chone. Chone is a small city in the province of Manabí, which is located in Western Ecuador, alongside the central part of the Pacific Coast. Waste picker families don’t usually live directly on the waste dumps – in the case of Jonathan and his family the reason is that, for 20 years now, his mother is paid by the municipality to oversee the machinery on the waste dump. Without electricity or water they are living in a fragile hut in the midst of garbage.

For GEOlino Hamburg 2008
http://www.geo.de/GEOlino/