Nobody leaves their home unless there are forced to

“Nobody leaves their home unless they’re forced to leave their home, and that’s what I try to show in my images.” Muhammed Muheisen in an interview with Global Citizen.

“I like to portray people with pride. They trusted me, they respected me, the least I can do is show their pride,” he continues. “Show their picture, never invade their privacy. And this is happening, you know, it’s not like this scene doesn’t exist. It exists, so simply I just document it.”

“If it’s in Jordan, or Greece, or Afghanistan, or Pakistan, it’s a picture that you can connect to,” he says. “That it can happen anywhere else in the world. And that’s the power of photography, we tell stories, we document things, for now, for tomorrow, or for the coming generations. To learn, to understand what happened.”

It’s this focus on the everyday, the fact that life goes on and never stops, even when you’re caught up in a refugee crisis, that led Muheisen to found the Everyday Refugees Foundation. Its focus is on helping refugees and internally-displaced people, whether from war, natural disasters, discrimination, or poverty.

A Dutch NGO, the Everyday Refugees Foundation was launched by Muheisen to share the stories of the daily lives of refugees and people who have been displaced, their struggles, and the “little sparks of hope that remain, despite their circumstances.”Read the full interview here:

An Interview With Muhammed Muheisen By Global Citizen