HUSSAN & HUSSEIN

11 year old twins Hussan & Hussein live in the Pipeline slum, a ramshackle parade of makeshift squats balanced precariously on a 2 meter wide pipe - home to over 350 families. A rancid canal runs through the middle of the slum, where the twins wash, play and work. Here overcrowding, poverty and substance abuse turn homes into battlegrounds. The twins’ family live in a space 3 metres by 4: their father is an alcoholic, their brother is on drugs. The twins left school several years earlier, and make a living by ‘ragpicking’, collecting rubbish to sell at the local recycling centre. Competition is stiff in the Pipeline slum, so Hussan & Hussein resort to diving into the canal to collect the detritus slum dwellers discard. On a good day they get 25p each for their endeavours.