In Pakistan, Huntington’s disease is often misunderstood and a burden that many families bear alone without any support. Our portraits of resilience series aims to showcase the grit and resilience of the Pakistani HD community facing an incurable disorder in a country where services for rare disease are nearly nonexistent.

Our first post is an interview with Gabriele Berti, an Italian photographer who visited Pakistan as part of his project to document Huntington’s disease in different countries and cultures. Gabriele travelled to several cities including Lahore, Peshawar, Islamabad and ultimately stayed with a family impacted by HD in Mardan. The photos of the family members are shared here with their consent and names/HD status have been removed to protect their privacy. To learn more about Gabriele’s project, you can visit https://thatdisorder.wordpress.com/.

In a follow up post, the family members photographed here will give their thoughts on the visit by Gabriele and discuss what type of support HD families need especially in smaller cities or rural areas of Pakistan such as Mardan.