Gallery: More than a Refugee Exhibition

For World Refugee Day, Global Youth Ambassador Mona Hassan had the idea to hold a photography competition that put the focus on positive images of refugees.

The competition was judged on the basis of strong photography that also captured the humanity, dignity and individuality of the subject, the sense of being ‘more than a refugee’, through image and caption.

Our thanks to Dar al Mussawir for hosting the exhibition, and being on the judges panel. Thanks also to Syrian photographer Omar Imam and Global Youth Ambassador Mona Hassan for completing the panel.

Here are the results!

First place: “Nasreen and Maryam”, Kim Edwards.

“Nasreen and Miriam, and their families, arrived in the Mercy Camp six months ago. They had been waiting in another camp in Syria until it was safe enough for them to travel to Lebanon to join other family members in the camp. They do not attend school, yet. “All my aunties and cousins are here. We help each other,” said Nasreen.”

Second place: “At home, I play the teacher and student”, Nour Wahid

8 year-old Nagham is no longer going to school. Last year she got enrolled in a public one in the first grade class, where a bus used to take children to school, one hour far from her house in the North of Lebanon. This year, due to the absence of any transportation mean secured for Syrian refugee students, Nagham will no longer be able to go to school. Today, Nagham does not have access to education anymore because there is no school nearby.

“Last year was my first year at school. I learned to write letters and how to read words”, she says.

Four years ago, Nagham, her mother, her brother Mohamed and her sister Amal left Homos in Syria where her father was convicted. When they first came to Lebanon, Nagham lived with her family in Sidon in the South of Lebanon in their relatives’ house. But her mother couldn’t find a job, therefore they moved to a small room in Douniyeh in the North where Nagham’s mother started working as a housecleaner.

“I do not know why I stopped going to school. It is probably because there is no school nearby”, says Nagham with sad eyes, holding her teddy bear. She then explains how she spends her day. “I play games with my neighbors, I play hide and seek. I also play with the toys that my grandmother sent me from Syria. I also wander around. I love going out and walking with my friends. Sometimes, I would bring the water gallons and carry them just to go on a promenade.”

Nagham’s sister and brother do not go to school as well. The mother cannot afford enrolling them at school. As for Nagham, she upholds the dream of going to school.

“I dream of going to school. Every now and then, I play the teacher and student game. I write letters and words on the wall just to remember what I have learned last year at school. I am good at Arabic language and at French as well”, she says with great excitement. “Sometimes I pretend to correct exams by writing on papers with a red pen. It is my favorite color”, she adds while she points at her red sweater.

Nagham is determined to pursue education. “I just want to wear my uniform, put my schoolbag on my back and go back to school.”

Joint third place: “Salah”, Kim Edwards

“Salah, 10 years old, attends the informal education program at Mercy Camp. “I go to school every day, but I can only go for just one hour per day because there are so many children wanting go, we have to take turns to attend class. I study Arabic and maths. This is my first school photo.” ”

Joint third place: “Nofa, the Syrian Iron Lady”, Farah Abou Assil

“These tired palms belong to Nofa. Mother of five, she left her home, her belongings, her neighbors, her commitments, and everything that made up her life behind; she sought refuge with her children in Lebanon after the capture and imprisonment of her husband in Syria.

Nofa realized that she bears the duty of being both mother and father, uncle, sister, brother and much more. How strong a woman is when she teaches herself to bottle up all her sadness and stress into one compartment, bury it deep within herself, and stand up on both feet strong and tall with a smile on her face to keep the flicker of hope in the hearts of her children. This is Nofa!

Nofa has inspired many women around her to work and seek independence. She even developed her talent in a short period of time and decided to teach the adolescent girls in the camps this skill which will later on become a career and a hope for a brighter future. Regardless of her harsh living conditions, she only looks ahead.

Nofa is literally her family’s only breadwinner. She barely gets a chance to rest. As soon as the sun is up, Nofa is out on the field reaping the crops on some private land in the Bekaa valley.

After a long day of back aching work, Nofa tends to her skill-based education at SAWA’s retention centre in Bar Elias, Bekaa. A sharp and tremendously fast learner, Nofa weaves through the strings of fabric as if she’s been doing so for years!

She taught her eldest how to sew, and together they lead the sewing workshops under the supervision of the trainer. Nofa’s enthusiastic spirit had such an impact on her classmates and all those surrounding her, that the handmade crochet work project which SAWA is sponsoring, has been named after Nofa.

Nofa is determined to alter her reality, she refuses to accept defeat. She wants her children to lead beautiful and dignified lives. Nofa hopes to create more and more beautiful products especially now, that she has a fashion line named after her, and she promises her kids that one day, she will become famous and together, they will tour the world to showcase her work.

Nofa wants to motivate all women breadwinners and let them know that as long as there is a will, there will always be a way.”

Finalists:

“Together we can make our community beautiful”, Bruno Alexandre

“They are refugee children living in New Rouda and attending ADRA Lebanon education and psychosocial activities in Dekweneh. They, together with other refugee children as well as children from the host community helped paint the mural at a public access stairway in New Rouda. The painting is called The River of Life. The children contributed to the beautification of their neighbourhood.”

“The purpose of our lives is to be happy”, Julian Zerressen

“It’s not always about the greatest or the saddest stories, sometimes in can be quite a simple pleasure, as for example letting the kids wear my extravagant sunglasses. Taking them out of their stagnating day-by-day routine and making them laugh is the greatest feeling for both sides.

Taanayel, Bekaa Valley.”

“All I can do now is take care of my grandchildren”, Jad al Masri

“They wake up in the middle of night. They can’t sleep because of the bombs. I tell them that they are safe now, but they cannot forget. No one can forget. All of this happened too fast. We have never been through a war, and all of a sudden we started to hear the sounds of bombs, and we did not know what to do. The kids were scared and they would hide in our arms, we would try to calm them down, and tell them everything will be okay, but we did not even know if we are going to live to see another day. We were scared. From the youngest to the oldest one of us. We still are.

They’d invade our homes, kidnap and kill. They did not want to make Syria better. They see the money and the gold, but they would leave them right where they are. They just wanted to kill. They were only making Syria worse.

Everything is destroyed now. Even the schools. There are not enough schools left, and I could not afford to enroll them in a school; it is too expensive now. I thought in Lebanon they will have a better chance of getting into a school. I swear those last five years are worth fifty years of my life, but they are gone. All I can do now is try to take care of my grandchildren, and keep them safe and alive.”

“Jana”, Ola al Samhoury

“Jana Zaaroura is a 6 years old student in my class. Jana’s family moved from Syria 4 years ago, and settled in Baalbak, Lebanon. Her mother was wounded by a fragment due to an explosion. Jana’s dream is to be a doctor in the future to help her mother totally recover from her injury. She has high aspirations, and she wants to be an effective citizen in her community; an empathetic doctor who treats poor people for free.”

“Ghada al Shami”, Abdullah Altaweel

“Ghada Al Shami is a 36-year-old a Syrian volunteer providing support and help to Syrian children in refugee camps. Two years ago she started drawing smiles and happiness on kids’ faces with the Shebab Al Ihsan volunteering team. This photo is from a campaign to give 1500 children sports shoes.”

“Ibrahim”, Sandy Choker

Ibrahim Wheich is a Syrian child, he’s 5 years old and he’s one of my students. His family fled to from Syrian to Lebanon as a result of the current crisis. Since the beginning of the school year, I focused in my class to instil human values ​​in students , and my vision was to make Ibrahim and his classmates aspire to their profession’s future. In this image you can see Ibrahim expresses his feelings on the wheel of emotions. Ibrahim put the arrow on the happy face and when I asked him why, he replied: “I am very happy,” because I have become a good citizen in my class and I helped my teacher and when I grow up I will become a teacher to help my friends in Syria to read and write.”

“Abdulaziz”, Kim Edwards

Abdulaziz, aged 14, from Aleppo, fled to Lebanon three years ago with his family. He is the eldest of 15 children. He lives in the Mercy Camp just outside Zahle. He attends the informal education program whenever he is not working on the nearby farms.

“My youngest brother was born a few weeks ago. We are a big family because family is more important than anything else. It is not easy, but we are all together. And that is the main thing.”