The young faces of the Syrian war
Many children have been uprooted since the beginning of the war in Syria. Muhammed Muheisen documents their stories.
Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives since the war in Syria began ten years ago. Millions of people left their homes behind and set out on the arduous journey into a supposedly better future. There were and are many children among the refugees – some accompanied by their parents, some on their own. For many of them, the arduous journey ends indefinitely in a dead end, in a refugee camp: for example, in Jordan or in Greece.
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the war in Syria, UNICEF publishes portraits of refugee children from Syria, which are part of the photo report “Voices” by Muhammed Muheisen.
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Muhammed Muheisen has been documenting major crises and conflicts in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the USA since 2001. For over a decade he has been photographing the refugee crisis in different parts of the world.
Muheisen says: “For me a picture is never just a picture – it is more. It is a story, a testimony and a message from one part of the world to the other part of the world.”
“I saw hope through their eyes and hope is all they have.” Muheisen said, who mainly focuses on children, “because I believe that children are the real, often hidden, victims of conflict. Children all over the world have the same things in common: They are looking for fun, they are looking for joy, they are looking for happiness. No matter where they come from and under what circumstances they grow up and live.”
For the German version of the article in Augsburger Allgemeine and in UNICEF Deutschland
