The Napalm Girl

The facial expressions of the skinny, little children are all marked by fear and despair. Their watery eyes and their wide open mouths reveal a tragic event. Being hurried by uniformed and full-armed soldiers, the children are forced to run. They try to get further but they seem to have reached the limits of their strength. The nearly unnoticeable little boy in the background who is wearing just a long-sleeved white shirt turns around like he is looking for someone he has already lost in this tragedy. The girl with her extended arms to the side has no clothes on to cover her shivering, underweight body. Her tormented face is made worse by the effort not to break down and keep on running. The whole atmosphere is shrouded in sott fog. Dust and dense mist lie over the place like a covering blanket. The narrow road is surrounded by thorny, frondose bushes and barren fields as if it leads right to an empty place without any means of escape. The old, abandoned house at the site is the only sign of living. When looking at this black and white picture taken by Phan Thi Kim Phuc, you wish you did not see a horrific story like this.

Monika Maric, Carola Ponjevic and Emina Ribo

First part of a narrative article

From the perspective of a child in a refugee camp in Lebanon

With an empty gaze, sitting on a pillow which is supposed to be a bed mattress, the nine year-old Rima recalls her days in Homs when everything used to be normal: “I miss playing with my friends. After school, we used to play a lot of football. We always lost track of time and played the whole afternoon until our mothers came to pick us up. But now, I cannot find any joy in playing football, especially in this place where everybody is drawn into a life of hopelessness and fear. I really miss my friends, and I miss having fun. I want to leave Lebanon.” In the small tent which serves Rima and her family as their temporary abode, you could literally feel the sadness. The place was too small for five people to live in. The smell of the food leftovers pervaded the room. Cooking pots, dishes and waste products were scattered everywhere and worst of all, the suffocating heat was unbearable.

Rima and her family are not the only people who have to live under such conditions. There are one million refugees registered in the Arsal refugee camp in Lebanon. They were forced to leave their country due to the outbreak of the Syrian civil war. Until the situation in Syria does not settle down, people will, unfortunately, have to suffer.