The stories that matter

AMSTERDAM – Here in the land of cheese, tulips and liberal policies, I had the honor of listening to some of the world’s most important stories of our time, as told by some of the world’s most courageous journalists.

The 2026 edition of The Stories That Matter, presented by the Netherlands-based World Press Photo and De Nieuwe Kerk, comprises the stories of 42 photographers who are this year’s World Press Photo awardees. Below are some of my favorite stories:

Motherhood at 60. Sheng Hailin, a Chinese mother who had lost her only daughter, decided to become a mother again through in vitro fertilization therapy. On May 25, 2010, at the age of 60, she gave birth to fraternal twins. Her grueling journey as a senior mother is poignantly captured by documentary photographer Wu Fang. Her daughters, now 15, are testaments to the complex realities of love, death, child-rearing and aging in modern China.

Hijacked Education. In Syria, a destroyed classroom at Tell Ruman, Al-Hasakah is seen through a gaping hole in a wall. The school had been closed since ISIS attacked it in July 2015.  Peeking through it, one can see a few wooden chairs and more bullet-riddled walls. This school is just one of many where war has denied children the right to education, says Lebanon-based visual storyteller Diego Ibarra Sánchez in his story.

The Trials of the Achi Women. The indigenous Maya Achi women in Rabinal, Guatemala lived in the same communities as the men who had raped them. During the country’s 36-year civil war from 1960 to 1996, a conflict triggered by the 1954 US-backed overthrow of president Jacobo Árbenz, the military and state-sponsored Civil Defense Patrols utilized rape as a weapon of war. In 2011, 36 Achi women broke their silence and in 2018, filed a formal complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Their 14-year legal battle achieved a landmark victory in 2022 when five perpetrators were sentenced to 30 years in prison for crimes against humanity, as photojournalist Victor Blue tells it in his story.

Name the Absence. Cúcuta-based photographer Ferley Ospina’s story is a powerful personal documentary that focuses on the human impact of armed conflict in northeastern Colombia. Fathers were torn from their homes through forced recruitment, leaving generations of women on their own to sustain the households. “Ospina documents this weight of absence within his own family in the municipality of Los Patios. In 1999, Ospina’s father, who deserted the Colombian army to be present for his son’s childhood, was murdered by paramilitaries.”

Manacillos: A Return to Life. Ever Andrés Puentes’ story immediately catches one’s attention. In one photo, a group of men dressed in burlap sacks and banana leaves draws in the viewer, curious what this is all about. It’’s the annual Fiesta de los Manacillos in Juntas, Colombia, which serves as the community’s most potent act of cultural expression and political and social affirmation.

Far?s?t: Gunpowder’s Daughters is a women’s empowerment story as represented by the participation of female riders in Tbourida, a UNESCO-recognized Moroccan equestrian tradition dating back to the 16th century, which was for decades exclusively male. “Today, seven all-female troupes ride among approximately 300,” as captured in the story by photographer Chantal Pinzi.

Two of the storytellers are our very own – Filipino photographers Aaron Favila of the Associated Press and Jes Aznar of The New York Times.

Wedding in the Flood is Favila’s story about the time Typhoon Crising hit the Philippines in July 2025 and submerged the historic Barasoain Church in Bulacan under knee-high deep murky water. A couple, Jade Rick Verdillo and Jamaica Aguilar, decided to push through with their wedding – “a testament to love’s resilience and a mounting environmental crisis in the region.”

Scam Hub Under Siege is Aznar’s story about the capture of Shunda Park, a non-descript clandestine compound in Myanmar’s Karen State. It is a rare look at a massive and secretive global criminal cyber-scamming operation, which the Karen National Liberation Army put an end to in November 2025. The photographs showed “prop-filled offices and the desperate scam center workers now huddled on riverbanks.”

There are many more stories but what stunned me most was Aid Emergency in Gaza, by Saber Nuraldin, which bears witness to the suffering and survival of civilians in Gaza. One photograph brings the viewer right into the mayhem, where hunger screams and desperation is tangible: “Palestinians climb onto an aid truck as it enters the Gaza Strip via the Zikim Crossing in an attempt to get flour, during what the Israeli military called a tactical suspension in operations to allow humanitarian aid through.”

Nuraldin, who told his story through a video message as he was unable to leave Gaza, said he went to the site to get aid for his hungry children but failed. Instead, he left with photographs and the hope of telling the world of their desperate situation.

Joumana El Zein Khoury, executive director of World Press Photo, said in honoring the winners that photojournalism “is not just a profession – it is one of the most important acts of civic resistance in the world.”

Congratulations to the honorees and thank you for your courage.

These stories, for me, are poignant reminders for us journalists to keep going, especially in these crazy and exhausting times – because there are many more stories to tell in this continuously spinning and chaotic world.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on X @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.