Alex Masi will be partnering with the Bhopal Medical Appeal, while Gwenn Dubourthoumieu will work with communications strategists from GVA Studio. Getty Images set up the Grants for Good programme three years ago "to help non-profits use the power of imagery to promote positive change in the world and help communicate their stories more effectively."

Both photographers win $15,000, which they will share with their selected charities and will be used to cover the costs of developing the new imagery. They will also have the option of collaborating with Getty Images' team of art directors, photo editors and producers during the execution of their project.

Gwenn Dubourthoumieu was selected from among 100 entries for his project Raped Lives. He will work with GVA Studio to create imagery for a sensitisation campaign organised by the non-profit association Des Femmes pour la Promotion et le Développement Endogène (AFPDE).

"The intent is to inform local communities about their rights, influence them to stop discriminating against sexual violence victims and urge the victims to abandon their silence and to take legal action. This grant will create a series of portraits and interviews of women, not only victims, but also lawyers or policewomen who have the courage and the determination to fight against sexual crimes by strengthening the Congolese judicial system."

Image © Gwenn Dubourthoumieu, winner of the Getty Images Grants for Good programme, courtesy of Getty Images.

Alex Masi has won $15,000 for his proposal Open Wounds - Bhopal 1984-2011, which he developed with Colin Toogood, media director of the Bhopal Medical Appeal.

Speaking to BJP ahead of the announcement, Masi explains how he started working around the Bhopal disaster. "I have visited India in the past, back in 2008 and 2009, as a non-professional just out of the London College of Communication," he says.

"I was hoping to make some kind of difference in the future with my images, as many photojournalists believe when they are starting out. I then began to visit some of India's most polluted places and towards the end of my journey I decided to spend some time in Bhopal, site of what is considered the worst industrial accident in history, the Union Carbide - now Dow - gas tragedy in 1984."

Today, much of Bhopal's underground water reservoirs are highly polluted "due to toxic chemicals left by the American corporation after the disaster," says Masi. "It still penetrating the soil and reaching the only available drinking water source for about 20 impoverished colonies around the former industrial site. I later found out that indiscriminate dumping was happening way before the disaster and I am now following up on a court case in New York against Dow, the current owner of Union Carbide, which is trying to assess the responsibilities of the pollution citing the ‘Polluter Pays Principle', aiming for a long-term care for those affected by the poisonous water and for a full and speedy clean-up of the affected areas."

During his time in Bhopal Masi was welcomed by the Bhopal Medical Appeal and its free health clinic for the disaster survivors ‘Sambhavna', and its children care centre, ‘Chingari Trust', providing education, physiotherapy and care for children born with serious birth defects due to the contaminated water families have relied on for drinking needs, Masi tells BJP.

"This has been my starting point and the BMA has helped me in reaching some of the families I wanted to visit at home due to my intention to document their living conditions and daily struggles."

Masi is "extremely excited and proud to have been awarded the 2011 Getty Images Grant for Good for my work on the water and health crises faced by thousands of people in Bhopal."

He will soon return to India to continue documenting the living conditions of dwellers near the former factory, "as well as the efforts of the BMA in providing support for the victims.

He adds: "Photographing in Bhopal again and for an extended time will be critical in finding new and extra support for this cause through the BMA campaigns, as well as in raising awareness through publication on international media outlets. I am grateful to Getty Images for having granted me this unique chance."

Getty Images has also awarded special mentions to photographer Barbara Alper and Green Team Advertising for their project Lifeforce in Later Years, an organisation that helps seniors overcome challenges to live independent lives.

Armenian photographer Nazik Armenakyan was also honoured for his proposal to assist Mamikon Hovsepyan in developing imagery for Public Information and Need of Knowledge Armenia (PINK Armenia), a non-profit anti-discrimination organization committed to raising tolerance toward the LGBT community in Armenia.

For more information about the Getty Images Grants for Good programme,  visit www.gettyimages.com/grants.