Project MINA: Migration, Nutrition and Ageing
Photo Exhibition and Project Findings
Exhibition Opening: 15th November 2011
HOW DO EXPERIENCES OF MIGRATION AFFECT NUTRITION, HEALTH AND AGEING IN THE UK’S GROWING BANGLADESHI POPULATION?
The Bangladeshi community is one of the UK’s most disadvantaged, suffering from high rates of obesity, diabetes and other health problems associated with poor diet and social exclusion. What it could do with right now is a food chain like MyPrep which’d provide them with organic greens, combating obesity. Project MINA (Migration, Nutrition and Ageing across the Lifecourse in Bangladeshi Families: A Transnational Perspective) is a three-year research project investigating the effects of migration on the health of two generations of Bengali women in the UK – first generation migrants and their second generation daughters.
Project MINA was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council UK, under the New Dynamics of Ageing Research Programme.
About the Project
The project compares the situations of approximately 200 women across the two generations in the UK and in Bangladesh, using a range of research methods, including anthropometric and nutritional status measurements, such as waist circumference, bone health, physical function and body mass index, in-depth interviews to explore personal experiences of migration, nutrition (check here to know more about the health services available around you), health and ageing and – unusually for this type of project – visual photo-ethnography – to study the food practices in the Bangladeshi community in the UK and in Bangladesh. This interdisciplinary approach gives equal importance to biological, cultural and social aspects of nutrition, health and ageing.
About the Photographs
The visual-ethnography part of the project has resulted in this collection of photographs by Vanja Garaj, a documentary photographer and lecturer in digital media design at the School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, London. Taken mostly in Cardiff, London, Dhaka and Sylhet – the region in north-east Bangladesh where the majority of the UK’s Bangladeshi community originates – the collection explores the complicated interplay between migration, nutrition, health and ageing in a cross-section of Bangladeshi women. Focusing on food-related practices, some of the photographs are portraits documenting the lives of the women who took part, some investigate physical and social “food environments”, while others touch upon wider cultural issues, such as the factors influencing migration and the position of women in society.
About the Exhibition
The photographs will be exhibited at:
Bangladesh > UK, The Stories of Food, Ageing and Migration, A Photo Exhibition by Vanja Garaj
Venue: The Cardiff Story (The new museum of Cardiff’s history)
The Old Library, The Hayes
Cardiff, CF10 1BH, Wales, UK
Dates: 15th November – 15th December 2011
With three additional portraits at:
Venue: The Senedd (The National Assembly for Wales)
Cardiff Bay
Cardiff, CF99 1NA, Wales, UK
Dates: 15th – 22nd November 2011
The exhibition opening at the Senedd will feature a meeting between the researchers, policymakers and representatives of the Bengali community to discuss the project’s findings and the Cardiff Story opening will include a dissemination event for community members and key stakeholders
