Father Christmas and Syrian children rummaging through rubbish to survive
Photojournalist Omar Sanadiki took a picture that has become a symbol of the poverty in which the population finds itself, especially the youngest. He tells AsiaNews how the photo came about and the prospects of a country that will not emerge from the tunnel of war and poverty anytime soon. Children rummaging through rubbish for survival is a growing phenomenon, exploited by traffickers.
Milan (AsiaNews) - There is an image that has become a "symbol" of the "suffering" of an entire people, especially the youngest. Capturing that image is part of "my job as a photojournalist: to send messages through these photos and to try to help... in this case I think the message has really arrived," says Omar Sanadiki, author of the lead photo on this article which, for once, replaces the traditional image of our newsletter dedicated to the Middle East.
It shows a child carrying on his shoulders a sack full of objects with - a little - food just picked up from the rubbish in a Damascus suburb, who looks with astonishment mixed with incredulity at a Father Christmas also carrying a black sack on his shoulders, in this case full of small objects, toys and sweets to be resold cheaply. An emblematic image. A glimpse of everyday reality in Syria today, and of the drama experienced by the youngest, while in the rest of the world, children of all ages anxiously await Christmas Eve to receive the long-awaited and longed-for holiday gifts.
Children among the rubbish
This photo is also emblematic of a new but growing phenomenon in Syria: people, especially children, rummaging through rubbish. It is now almost customary to see small groups of very young children rummaging through the waste for something they can resell, reuse, recycle or even eat.
Most of them are 'skinny skeletons', confirming the very serious damage caused by the 'poverty bomb' that has long been denounced by the Syrian Church, and which is claiming more victims than the conflict.
It is a devastating crisis linked to the civil war, international sanctions (first and foremost of the West), the Caesar Act imposed by the United States, but also the child of an internal corruption that enriches the very few and brings an entire nation, once - in the not too distant past - a symbol of prosperity and coexistence, to its knees.
Omar Sanadaki (photo 4) is a reporter and art photographer based in Damascus. He works with major international agencies and with his shots, and his reportages, has in recent years witnessed the devastating effects of the war on the population. In particular the youngest, as emerges from a long story last spring about children suffering from cancer.
He is a man whose dream, as he confessed some time ago, is that "one day, even 50 years from now, my daughters Asli and Zoya will be able to show my photos to the world to denounce what the conflict has done to our country". Among the most famous shots is one of a little girl from Eastern Ghouta, a suburb on the eastern outskirts of Damascus that has long been a rebel stronghold and the scene of a long siege by the government army, carried asleep inside her suitcase by her fleeing father (photo 3).
"Every photo has a story to tell," the reporter explains to AsiaNews, "and to do this best we have to find different nuances, taking advantage of the moment and the opportunity, seizing a dramatic and unforeseen event even by chance. That day, like others, I went to a café [La capital in Bab Sharqi, in the old city of Damascus] and started observing people from the window. I had already been there five or six other times, but that day I decided to take my camera with me for the first time, knowing that something would happen'.
Suddenly, he continues, "a Father Christmas came by and I started taking pictures. At that moment, the child arrived and started staring at him in amazement; at first I didn't see the little one's gaze, then with the zoom lens I caught the scene in full view, which, by the way and fortunately, was not disturbed by passing cars or other vehicles. It was really a fortuitous series of coincidences".
Rebuilding a community
Since the day the photo was taken, Omar Sanadaki points out, "I have received many messages from people who fell in love with the photo and asked how they could help the child". However, the little boy's situation is the same as that of many others in a war-torn nation plagued by poverty and neglect.
"The children are victims of hunger, they are poor and there is no short-term prospect of an end, not least because there are people who benefit from - and exploit - their work" of picking through the rubbish. For the immediate future he sees no glimmer of improvement: "I don't believe in strong people, third nations or realities that can help Syria and its children' because all external actors 'have their own interests."
"Nor," he continues, "do I place much trust in non-governmental organisations whose action is limited. We have to rely on ourselves, working on the many unresolved problems that the conflict has left us. War is an experience through which all nations go throughout history, some come out stronger. I hope we will be strong enough to go through the tunnel and come out the other side, forgetting these last 10 years to rebuild the nation not only from the stones, but starting first of all from the people, the human community... I am not optimistic about the immediate future but, inshallah, maybe in 15, 20, 40 years things will be better. "
The poverty bomb
Today in Syria about 90 per cent of the population, at least according to official figures, but the situation on the ground could be much worse, live in poverty on less than two euros a day. Also in the Arab country, more than 6.5 million children are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, the highest figure since the beginning of the war in March 2011, and an entire generation struggles hard every day to survive.
Add to this the 12.4 million who experience, according to UN estimates, a daily condition of 'food insecurity'. Hence the Damascus government's decision to introduce further austerity measures, including the temporary reduction of civil servants' working days and extra holiday closures between Christmas and New Year's in a bid to keep spending down as much as possible.
The work of collecting children's rubbish is exploited by unscrupulous entrepreneurs and businessmen who buy cardboard, cans, glass and other waste for recycling in Turkey, fuelling an increasingly flourishing trade. A phenomenon that is destined to continue if the course of a nation adrift, where the total number of families below the hunger threshold is close to 40%, is not reversed.
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