May 22, 2012.

28-year-old aid worker Helen Johnstone was riding a mule across the rugged, rocky terrain

of Badakshan.

Helen is a British nutritionist and a recent graduate from the London School of Hygiene

and Tropical Medicine.

With her was 26-year-old Kenyan health worker Morgarway Oriere, along with two local guides.

Both women worked for Med Air, an international humanitarian aid organisation.

They were in the region to provide urgently needed medical help to the local population.

Badakshan is an extremely poor region with an extremely hard child mortality rate.

Huge levels of sort of ignorance in healthcare, child care, very poorly educated.

Famine happens.

There are major problems getting food in during the winter.

If you're going to work there, you really have to have an understanding of what you're

getting yourself into.

As the small group traversed along the valley, the towering Hindu Kush Mountains cast long

shadows across the path in front of them.

It was quiet and desolate.

Badakshan has been considered relatively safe.

The Taliban were an active in the area.

Attacks on visitors were rare.

Helen and her colleagues were sure they would be fine.

Helen Johnson stated before she went in a newspaper interview,

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