What Would You Take?

Salma (name changed) fled Syria with the ring her mother
gave her on her death bed more than 80 years ago.

Posted By: Jeff McKown

In March 2011 the Syrian people began to gather and demand the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad, whose family has ruled their country for forty years. After the government responded to the protests by open firing on demonstrators, the uprising grew into a full-fledged civil war.

In the two years since, more than 70,000 people have lost their lives in the civil war, and more than one million Syrians have sought refuge in other countries.

Imagine that tomorrow you were forced to flee your home. You can take almost nothing with you. What would you take?

Photographer Brian Sokol posed that question to refugees from Syria, Sudan, and other troubled spots around the globe. Some of the profound images his question generated are shown below.

Alia (name changed), fled Daraa, Syria with her wheelchair.
Image: Brian Sokol 

May (name changed), fled Damascus, Syria with her bracelets.
Image: Brian Sokol

Ahmed (name changed), fled Syria with his cane.
Image: Brian Sokol

Ahmed Sadik, fled his village in Sudan with his pet monkey.
Image: Brian Sokol

You can see Brian Sokol's complete (and stunning) photo essay here.

Fleeing Violence and Civil War in Syria

Syrian boy standing on mattresses at
the school where his family lives.
Photo: Jamal Saidi / Reuters

As the violence escalates between brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad and the armed rebel resistance, hundreds of thousands of Syrians are fleeing their country and crossing borders into Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, and other middle east nations.

It's hard to imagine the awful conditions and pervasive fear that must preclude such a mass evacuation.

What would lead people to pack up their entire families and flee their homes, with nothing ahead but the promise of poverty and hunger in hastily-erected tent cities in hostile neighboring countries?

Exodus is a heart-breaking hardship for those who flee their homelands, and a stressful and disruptive burden to the communities that must absorb them, particularly when resources may already be scarce.

This compelling Reuters photo slideshow reminds us of the real impact of civil war on a nation's people, not with graphic photos of war or violence, but with unique images of refugee life, some that capture sadness, and some that glimpse our fundamental human resilience and adaptability.