The award-winning picture – of a person who misplaced a leg in a bomb assault in Syria, born with out limbs, waving his son within the air, one other casualty of the nation’s civil battle – went viral in Italy final 12 months.
On Friday, Munzir El Nezel and his son Mustafa, seen within the picture, arrived in Italy after a exceptional effort by the organizers of the Siena International Photo Awards to repatriate him and his household from Turkey, the place they fled after Syria.
“We’re coming, thank you,” mentioned 6-year-old Mustafa, smiling broadly, in a recorded video message in entrance of himself and his household – El Nezel, the boy’s mom and two sisters aged 1 and 4 – Ankara. Boarded a aircraft in Turkey, to fly to Italy on Thursday. “We love Italia,” he mentioned.
The picture of Mustafa and his father, each with loving smiles, taken by Turkish photographer Mehmet Aslan in January 2021 and referred to as “Hardship of Life”, was declared Photo of the Year on the Siena Awards final 12 months went.
The emotional and surprising picture made headlines in Italy and unfold internationally on social media, prompting competition organizers to take motion and launch a fundraising marketing campaign for the daddy and son’s therapy.
Munzir el Nezel, little Mustafa, his mom Zeynep and two daughters Nur and Sacaid are flying to Rome right now. He will likely be welcomed by the administrators of the Siena International Photo Award, volunteers from Misericordia and a cultural mediator. A brand new life will start in Siena. pic.twitter.com/7oHEkJBnDe
— Ines San MartÃn (@inesanma) 21 January 2022
Festival organizers contacted diplomats, hospitals, rehabilitation facilities and Catholic diocese in Siena to host a Syrian household in order that Mustafa and his father may obtain therapy and prostheses.
“The picture was beyond all imagination,” mentioned engineer Luca Venturi, who based the Siena Photography Festival practically six years in the past. “We thought we could get over the fear of not being able to do anything for this family.”
Like all international locations, Italy can subject visas for humanitarian causes, however refugees have to be sponsored by a neighborhood group that handles the paperwork and supplies monetary assist.
Inspired by the success of the crowdfunding effort, the non-profit group that organized the pictures competition determined to sponsor the Syrian Family.
“It was a big dream for everyone,” Venturi mentioned.
As Venturi labored out his connections in Italy, making an attempt to acquire permission to carry the household from Turkey, he used Google Translate through WhatsApp to speak in Arabic with the 33-year-old father of three. Maintained common contact with Se El Nezel.
Venturi additionally despatched aerial photographs of the medieval metropolis middle of Siena to persuade the household, who had been dwelling and not using a tv for a decade, the place they have been to go to.
El Nezel replied with exclamation factors.
When the household was advised this month that their visa had arrived, “they were in disbelief,” Venturi mentioned, in a video Mustafa somersaulted and laughed, “I love you”.
Mustafa was born with a congenital dysfunction that occurred on account of medicine his mom took whereas pregnant with him, after falling ailing with nerve fuel launched throughout the battle in Syria. He will want long-term therapy to have the ability to stroll or reside extra independently. Her mother and father presently take her round, and certainly one of her two sisters additionally helps her round the home.
Prosthetics specialists in Italy will work with Mustafa and his father to design new prostheses within the coming weeks. El Nezelle is more likely to be simpler to deal with as a result of he’s an grownup. According to docs and engineers at Italy’s main Rehabilitation and Prosthetics Centre, working with a 6-year-old will likely be tougher.
The father can recuperate most of his mobility in just a few weeks, mentioned Gregorio Tetti, director of the ability on the Centro Proteas Inel, in Vigoroso di Budrio, northern Italy.
For Mustafa, the method may be prolonged, beginning with easy prosthetics on his higher limbs which might be normally simpler to just accept and get accustomed to. Later engineers would design prostheses round Mustafa’s hips.
“It’s a technical but also a psychological learning curve,” Teti mentioned. “Her world will change, and it takes time to accept that too.”
As Mustafa grows up, his prosthetics should alter to his altering physique.
“As a kid, he had time,” Teti mentioned. “The research will probably allow him to drive a car and work autonomously when he is older.”
But they may even face the challenges of immigrating to a international nation, studying a unique language, and constructing a brand new life.
“Leaving their country is always a big leap, but we hope to help them find a new home here,” mentioned Ana Ferretti, who’s accountable for the town department of Caritas, a Catholic assist union that runs the L.A. Nazelles has to supply. The residence on the outskirts of Siena and can meet their every day monetary wants for a 12 months.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
