2015 has taken me from Lesotho to Nepal and from clowns to Eurozone crises, so, as much for myself as for anyone else, I've identified several of the year's highlights.

Paleng Children's Centre is barely a year old. The only thing that betrays that fact is their unstable facility situation - the tiny office/library is on loan from the school and their bad weather option, the school hall, is often unavailable to them.
The mission is to improve literacy (importantly, mother tongue literacy) and general child well-being through stories and play.

Already they are a test site for a pilot scheme by the African Storybook Project, have already published and printed several storybooks, and are on the verge of launching a health storybook campaign.

As always with such small projects, the struggle for funds is constant. You can find more information at www.paleng.weebly.com

Cheshire Homes is the only centre in Swaziland providing rehabilitative care for adults and children; services that include physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, assistive devices, education & information on disability and HIV/AIDS & TB.

Tasked with creating a video that would be used both for raising public awareness of the services and for raising funds, I spent a month visiting the centre, getting to know the patients and staff.

The principal theme of the video is the principal philosophy of CHESWA, small successes. There is no promise of miracle cures, simply that through hard work, dedication and support, mental and physical well-being will improve and patients can learn to live with their condition.

More info on their Facebook page.

Left with an empty space in my calendar after a job in South Sudan fell through (security), I was on the lookout for another exciting project. Then the Greek ruling party Syriza decided to call a referendum on whether to accept bailout conditions imposed on them by the ECB, EU and IMF. The framework of the European Union seemed under threat. I felt that this was one  of those "living History" moments and not an opportunity one gets too often, especially when you're available. With no specific project planned, I left for Athens.

Upon arriving, I was struck by the huge contrast between what we were hearing in the media and what was happening on the ground. The country was, and still is, enveloped in grave social and economic issues. However, we were being sold a story of Armageddon-like proportions. It was, effectively, the end of the world as we knew it.

So why did it seem like a lot of people were simply getting on with their lives?

The idea for the 2Photographers project came out of this desire to show two societies, Athens and Berlin, that were currently the focus of huge amounts of attention for very specific reasons. So, instead of showing protest and hardship, myself and Berlin-based photographer Ben Chislett had a go at widening our field of vision a little.

You can see the results on the 2Photographers website.

People need to eat. But they also need to laugh.

Which one takes priority is not usually the subject of any serious debate. Until you watch the clowns.

I worked with Clowns without Borders South Africa back in 2010 but this time it was the UK chapter that took me to India for their first solo tour since their foundation last year.

The response of children and adults alike, often in very different ways, is magical. But magical in the sense that you think to yourself "If the magic from the fairytales doesn't exist, this is probably the next closest thing."

Over two weeks, the clowns performed to thousands of children, with audiences ranging from 1200 to 12. They put on shows for schoolchildren, orphans, refugees, children rescued from human trafficking (often not mutually exclusive categories) and the joyous response was universal.

Don't take it for a joke, however. These clowns are professionals and making people smile is serious business.

http://clownswithoutborders.org.uk/

Taking advantage of my proximity, I nipped over to Nepal from India once the CWBUK tour finished. It was the same interest that had taken me to Athens earlier in the year. Nepal was six months on from a huge earthquake that had, as far as I was concerned, razed the country to the ground.

It turns out that for the most part it had. Although I was still fascinated by the overwhelming bias towards scenes of destruction and misery in international media. What I found was a place full of community initiatives, many involving young people, that had seemingly done far more to bring the country out of disaster than the Nepali government and international aid agencies had. I confess, this is a very superficial judgement of a complex issue but there was undoubtedly a strong sense of community and solidarity among the Nepalese I met.

Unfortunately, Nepal was now in the grip of a fuel crisis due to a border blockade due to a constitutional disagreement with India. The most obvious result being that fuel was five times the price. That being if you could get hold of it at all.

For me, this meant being more or less restricted to Kathmandu. However, events in Paris made me consider a second 2Photographers project, Aftermath: Paris & Kathmandu

And last, but not least, a return to the Azulejo Art series. This time, in Patan, Nepal. A spur of the moment street art collaboration with local artists Aayush Bajracharya and Pranav Joshi.

Du Sa Makha (There is but you do not see)

Today I launched a new project called 2 photographers. The idea is a visual "conversation" between two photographers in two different locations around the world within the same time period.  The aim is to play off one another and hopefully create a dialogue of images that are influenced by their counterparts but entirely separate at the same time.

Along with Berlin-based photographer Ben Chislett (www.benchislett.de), we started the first series today, A Tale of Two Cities: Athens & Berlin. We've chosen Athens and Berlin because of the current situation involving Greece and it's place in the Eurozone. At the moment Germany and Greece find themselves as polar opposites in terms of economic stability and much has been made of the differences between the two. Germany, as the European powerhouse is seen by many to represent the unwelcome austerity measure being forced upon the Greeks for the last few years. Greeks, on the other hand are being blamed for dragging their country into this position through irresponsible spending and corruption. It's a clash of the stereotypes: German efficiency and fondness of rules vs Greek apathy and fondness for ignoring them.

Can a conversation between two photographers shed any more light on the matter?

We have decided to use black and white for consistency and style. Other than that, the aesthetics will evolve as we progress.

You can keep up to date with all the latest images via https://www.facebook.com/twophotographersproject and I hope to set up a website for it shortly. Just might not be this week!

It's worth noting that the "No" vote was not a No to Europe or the Euro.

Some of the Greeks I've spoken to expressed concern before and after the referendum that this was how the vote would be interpreted. Many of the articles I've read in the non-Greek press have interpreted it this way.

Ok, given the high risk that Greece does end up leaving the Eurozone, it would be naive to completely separate the two. However, the majority of Greeks voted No to further austerity measures, acknowledging, yet not necessarily desiring, that the consequence could well be exit from the Eurozone.

I think it's important to differentiate between motive and consequence. Especially as politicians have a field day mixing the two of them up.

I suspect a bit of calm will be crucial over the next few weeks.