大象传媒

Thirty year old Diana Kim is a photographer who focuses on the homeless people who live on the streets in her native Hawaii. She says she was drawn to that community because she had always wanted a home of her own. Her parents had separated when she was small, and she had had a turbulent upbringing. But three years ago, her project became even more personal, when her own father had a mental health breakdown and ended up living on the streets of Honolulu. In an effort to save him, Diana turned her camera on him.

Siavosh Derakhti was born to Iranian parents in the southern Swedish city of Malm枚. As a teenager Siavosh went off the rails, so his father decided to take him to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp and teach him about discrimination. The experience had a strong impact on Siavosh and he went on to set up a group called Young Muslims Against Anti-Semitism, now called Young People Against Anti-Semitism. Malm枚 has the highest number of reported anti-Semitic hate crimes in Sweden and in 2009 a Jewish centre in the city was firebombed.

The Chemin des Dunes is not your average school. Nestled in the middle of a migrant camp in Calais and staffed by local volunteers, it is the result of a partnership between a French speech therapist Virginie Tiberghien and Nigerian migrant Zimarco Jones. One of the reasons it was started was to give migrants who decided to stay in France a helping hand with the language. But, as our reporter Tomos Morgan discovered, the timetable was slightly more unusual than anticipated.

This summer the prestigious Royal Opera House in London showcased an opera by the Syrian composer Zaid Jabri. Cities of Salt tracks the effects of the oil industry on a fictional oasis community somewhere in the Middle East from the 1930s onwards. It is adapted from a celebrated story by Saudi novelist Abdul Rahman Munif. When the 大象传媒's John Wilson met Zaid Jabri he explained how the opera came about.

Being a prison officer is not always seen as a glamorous job - so one prison in Japan has come up with a novel idea to improve the image and keep its staff happy. They have formed a dance troupe. MGirls is a group of female warders who dance to some of Japan's most popular girl bands. It is the brainchild of Hiromi Kobayashi, general manager at a mixed prison in the Yamaguchi district.

(Photo: Homeless father of Diana Kim. Credit: Diana Kim)