Cetiya Kiymaz, An Autistic child's mother (PEOPLE 2020)

I am the mother of a disabled child. I have been going through difficult times since my only son was diagnosed with autism. I cannot describe the feelings of loneliness, helplessness and fear I experienced when my son started self-harming and his funding to access professional help was cut. Similarly, last year, funding for almost all of his disability treatment services was cancelled without explanation. I saw him suffer and I cried together with him every day. I wish no one should go through the pain we went through, seeing your child suffer and fighting tooth and nail for essential treatments every year. As the treatment plan is renewed annually with no guarantee that one will get good support, the outcome is almost left to luck with some families benefiting and others not. Like me, the latter are left to deal with negative feelings such as stress, confusion, sadness, guilt, shame and anger… Every year, when the plan review time arrives. Again and again... The images that I have created reflect this constant internal struggle in an artistic manner.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.