Photo by @JohnStanmeyer 5 year-old Ahmed breaks down in tears after arriving safely in #Turkey with his family. Some 150,000 Kurds made the wrenching journey in three days from their homes in Müsitpinar, #Syria, last September 2014 ~ Fleeing Terror, Finding Refuge, my latest story for @NatGeo magazine on #Syrianrefugees in Turkey, Part IV of @outofedenwalk, published in the #March2015 issue, available now at newsstands everywhere. Personal Note: It was one of those moments (reality, too many) that will stick in my consciousness for years. Day two of a mass exodus, the waterfall of humanity persisted throughout that Saturday, people that could have been you, me, your mother, my son, our neighbors. Our brothers and sisters. All walks of life, age and origin, (I don’t believe in race, only the human race) — farmers, doctors, teachers, merchants, musicians, lovers. As night fell, the tide was unabating. Tired, depressed, amidst the mayhem I saw a mother with a group of children. One was a boy who could have been my son, only slightly younger. I walked over with my translator trying to comfort him with a smile. It did not help — trauma he had experienced walking to safety blinding his consciousness, his sense of place. I briefly spoke through Kawa to his mother, asking whether it was ok to photograph. She nodded. Shortly after I put my camera down, unable to bare the pain expressing from Ahmed’s eyes, the wild abandonment in his young sister’s face, the uncertainty that lies ahead as an entire family enters into a life as #refugees — Ahmed and his family were part of the largest movement of people in this region seeking refuge at one time since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. I ask you to please pick up the the March 2015 edition of National Geography not only to read the brilliant writing by #PaulSalopek, also to feel, understand the weight and measure of what it means to be displaced, a devastating reality for millions around our planet today as Paul and I continue walking along the pathway our collective humanity took out of Africa that began some 60,000 years ago ~ John Stanmeyer @NatGeoCreative #displacement #fleeingterrorfindingrefuge @thephotosociety
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