through the eyes of a refugee
Gaining safety
but losing hope Hany fled first, followed a month later by the rest of his family. They paid a taxi driver to get them safely through the checkpoints, no questions asked, their
refugee
destination was an settlement
in informal Lebanon’s
Bekka Valley. Hany’s most important possession stuffed in his bag? His high school diploma and transcripts. “These are my life, my future. I left everything behind in Syria, but not these,” he says in a UNHCR web series
that documented his three- year life in the temporary settlement.
The Al Moliya family rented a piece of land in the settlement and began living in their one-room homemade shelter.
Other extended
members were close by. At first, they thought they would be there only temporarily, but soon acknowledged there was no
going home. The
realization that they were refugees sank in; then the growing possibility that they could spend many years in this settlement hung like a cloud over their lives. Going from a busy life full of friends, activities and school work, Hany became depressed and listless. “It’s not the life in the tented settlement that entraps me,” he says in the video. “I am not worried about hunger and cold. I am worried about the entrapment I feel inside.”
family
Then Hany received a phone call from UNHCR inviting him to a two-week photography and writing workshop. Brendan Bannon, a photojournalist from New York taught the course, titled “Do You See What I See?” Already interested in photography, Hany had been taking photos
in
Syria on his cell phone. This, despite the fact
that he was diagnosed in
childhood with a visual impairment known as nystagmus. Hany is legally blind and can only see things
if
they are extremely close, yet he is a talented photographer and writer.
© UNHCR/ Hany
18 / UNHCR
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32