New Dublin exhibition tells stories of five people living through 13 years of Syrian conflict: ‘We feel no one cares about us’
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It takes place on May 9 and 10 at The Depot in Smithfield, which focuses in part on the work of Concern Worldwide with funding from the European Union

One woman, Amira, who lives in an encampment with her family in northern Syria where many were forced to flee, told her story as part of the project.

Her name was been changed to protect her identity, with photographers working to ensure there was nothing identifiable in the images due to security risks for those involved.

"We feel that we are people that no one cares about, nobody is thinking of us. I hope that my children can change their lives and not live the life that we do now, I don’t want them to live in a tent,” she said.

The family received cash distribution from the charity, with her children attending the organisation’s non-formal education programme which supports those who have been out of the school system to catch up with basic literacy and numeracy skills.

They can then graduate to formal schools and join classes with students of a similar age.

“Because we were restricted in what we could show, we wanted to try and get as much of the person’s personality and life into the images,” said Gavin Douglas, Concern’s multimedia manager, who took the photos for the exhibition.

"That's why we photographed people in the place where they live, photographed items brought from their old life before they had to flee, and items or things that made where they live now, feel like home.

“There was a man who keeps birds as pets and talks about how much he loves the birds. There’s a woman who has been living with her children in a tent in a camp for people internally displaced and after a couple of years realised that they had nowhere else to go, so she decided she needed to make it feel like a home.

"She planted a garden, made these beautiful triangular windows, and an exterior mud wall to provide a sense of privacy.”

Concern chief executive David Regan said Syria risks becoming a “forgotten crisis” as more than 70pc of the population need humanitarian assistance this year.



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