Noted War Photographer Alixandra Fazzina Documents Clear Path International's Work in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan - A bearded tribal elder awaiting his new prosthesis with a look of "Inshallah." A downcast girl in a red dress against a blue wall, her dark eyes pained from the struggle to use a walker. A hospitalized young man whose naked upper limbs contort like the wing bones of a wounded bird.

The images linger in your mind even hours after you've seen them. Such is the power of Alixandra Fazzina's extraordinary photography and in this case, her subjects are patients at the Kabul Orthopedic Organization. KOO gets a major portion of its funding from Clear Path International under a subcontract with DynCorp International, which in turn is supported by the U.S. State Department's Office of Weapons Removal & Abatement.

Fazzina, a noted war photographer who grew up in the United Kingdom, spent an entire day documenting the work of CPI's partner adjacent to the main military hospital in Kabul. The 33-year-old, dubbed a "hot star" by the British Independent newspaper, has spent a decade visually recording conflicts around the world. Her subjects have included the infamous Lord's Resistance Army In Uganda, the Miya-Miya rebels in the Congo, and the aftermath of wars in Sierra Leone and Bosnia.

More than 6,000 KOO patients like the ones photographed by Fazzina received care through the clinic's partnership with CPI in 2007 and 2008. Persons with disabilities, especially landmine accident survivors, come from all over Afghanistan to be treated there. Stay tuned for more of Alixandra's photos, as she recently visited Jalalabad Afghanistan where CPI sponsors Afghanistan's only cricket club, made up of persons with disabilities.



Injured in a landmine explosion, an old man receives heat treatment on his leg during a physiotherapy session at the Kabul Orthepedic Organisation (KOO).





A female patient uses an exercise bicycle to help her gain use of her legs during physiotherapy at the Kabul Orthepedic Centre.




Waiting in a corridor between consultations, a young land mine victim looks at a new prosthetic leg propped up on a bench.





With the aid of a frame, a young girl learns to walk on prosthetic limbs at the Kabul Orthepedic Organisation's clinic for children.



Head of the Kabul Orthepedic Organisation's workshops Muhammad Ghous helps amputee Sher Muhammad walk on a new prosthetic leg for the first time. Having lost his leg in a landmine explosion when he was fighting with the Mujahadeen in Kunduz, Sher is receiving his first "lighter and stronger"; prostheses.



Surrounded by other war wounded, an Afghan National Army soldier is assessed by a doctor having has his shattered leg bone screwed together.



Recently married with a new born baby, twenty-six year old soldier Muhammad Naeem spends his third month as a bed-ridden quadriplegic after sustaining a head injury in a landmine blast.