Tume Tare, from the Boran (Borana Oromo) community, lives in Alkano village. She has seven children, two boys and five girls, the eldest of whom is 30 and married, and the youngest is seven. She used...

Tume Tare, from the Boran (Borana Oromo) community, lives in Alkano village. She has seven children, two boys and five girls, the eldest of whom is 30 and married, and the youngest is seven. She used...

A taiga landscape of thin birch trees and snow seen from the window of the Baikal Amur Magistral (BAM) railway in far-eastern Russia.

The medical team on board the Matvei Mudrov train celebrates Maslenitsa in the train's dining car, drinking vodka and playing music. Maslenitsa is an eastern Slavic festival which is celebrated to mar...

A view of the Matvei Mudrov train at dusk with a group of people standing in the snow outside. The Matvei Mudrov train is a medical train operated by Russian Railways along the course of the Baikal...

Vladimir Petrenko (right), who has liver problems, sits at home with with his invalid wife, Lubov (reclining on bed), their daughter-in-law, Elena, and grandson, Valery, who suffers from hemophilia. T...

A doctor and nurse on board the Matvei Mudrov record an electroencephalogram of Nadegda Gaskevitch who struck her head in a fall in 2003 and now needs regular treatment. The Matvei Mudrov train is a...

Villagers line up outside the door of the Matvey Mudrov train in -15C temperature, waiting for its doors to open at 9am. Most of the diagnostic services on the train are covered by public funding. Th...

The view from the back of the Matvei Mudrov train in the tiny village of Kenai, where, after many complaints from the mayor, the train has now stopped for the first time in three years.The Matvei Mudr...

Olga Kolmogorova tries to get a mobile phone signal to make a call. She and her husband Piotr are raising their three grandchildren, as the children's father is often away, working in the taiga, and t...

A view of the village of Kun ('Snow Covered Valley') where the Matvei Mudrov train has stopped to deliver services. The village has no running water and only few people live here now. The Matvei Mud...

An elderly woman who sells food to passangers on passing trains walks alongside the Matvei Mudrov at Selikhin. The Matvei Mudrov train is a medical train operated by Russian Railways along the cours...

A view of a square in the village of Verkhnezeysk, which today has a population of 1,500. In Soviet times, the town had a summer youth camp, now converted into housing. In the background is the power...

Young residents of the village of Tungala celebrate a birthday with beer, vodka and shashliks cooked on an open fire. Most of the young people work for the Russian Railways. Tungala lies along the rou...

A child sits on a swing in a snow covered playground in the village of Tungala. In 1989 the village had a population of 3000. Now on 548 remain. The story is much the same for most of the villages alo...

The Matvei Mudrov train travelling through the taiga at night. It usually travels during the night and is then ready for service in the morning in one of the hundreds of villages along the route of th...

The crew of the Matvei Mudrov train celebrates the birthday of the medical director, Vera Chebakova. A portrait of Doctor Matvei Mudrov, after whom the train was named. hangs on the wall above the tab...

Patients from the village of Khani register at the reception desk in the Matvei Mudrov train before going to consult one of the specialists specialists. The village, with a population of 900, does hav...

Yuri dismantles some of the last homes in the village of Mogot which were made out of old train carriages. These houses once housed the pioneers who had come to this part of Russia to build the Baikal...

Children play on a playground in the town of Zolotinka (popuation 550). 85% of people from this town work for the Russian Railways. During Soviet times, 1,500 people lived here. Around half of the apa...

Elena Shershova, who suffers from severe psoriasis, sweeps up dead skin in her tiny apartment. She has regular appointments in Blagoveshchensk, a town some 16 hours on the train from her home. People...

Two nurses on the Matvei Mudrov medical train watch a soap opera in their compartment. The Matvei Mudrov train is a medical train operated by Russian Railways along the course of the Baikal Amur Mag...

People line up in the corridor of the Matvei Mudrov train to register before going to see a doctor. The Matvei Mudrov train is a medical train operated by Russian Railways along the course of the Ba...

Liza Bazhanova (8) waits for the pathology results in the laboratory aboard the Matvei Mudrov train. Even at her age, she complains about the lack of decent healthcare in her home village of Olekma....

Children lie in their beds at the Solnyshko ('Little Sunshine') centre for underprivileged children in the village of Chilchi. The centre looks after orphans and children of alcoholic or ill parents....

Patients line up aboard the Matvei Mudrov medical train to get the results of their pathology tests. The Matvei Mudrov train is a medical train operated by Russian Railways along the course of the Ba...

Carina Sadirdinova, the nurse and receptionist on the Matvei Mudrov, stands at the window of the train after a day's work, looking outside. The Matvei Mudrov train is a medical train operated by Rus...

People walk along a track beneath heating pipes in the village of Lopcha. The village was founded in 1978 during the construction of the Baikal Amur Magistral (BAM) railway line. The village now has a...

Albert Popov uses the 'parapodium', a device which allows him to do rehab exercises, in the village of Lopcha. He has just seen a surgeon from the Matvei Mudrov medical train for the first time in 12...