EAST DOOR Santa Claus and Syrian children searching through the garbage to survive

Photojournalist Omar Sanadiki took a photo that has become a symbol of the poverty of the population, especially the smallest. He tells how the image was born and talks about the prospects for a country that will not soon emerge from the tunnel of war and poverty. Children scavenging through garbage is a growing phenomenon that traffickers take advantage of.

Milan () – An image that has become a “symbol of suffering” for an entire people, especially the smallest. It is part of “my job as a photojournalist to send messages through images and do everything possible to help”… and in this case I believe that the message has indeed arrived”. These are the words of Omar Sanadiki, author of the photo that we propose on the cover and that, just this once, replaces the traditional image of our newsletter dedicated to the Middle East. It shows a boy carrying on his shoulders a bag full of objects and some -few- foods that he has just collected from the garbage in a suburb of Damascus, and looks with astonishment mixed with disbelief at a Santa Claus who also carries a black bag on his shoulders, in this case full of small objects, games and sweets that he sells at low prices. An emblematic image. A fragment of the current daily reality in Syria and the drama that the little ones experience, while in the rest of the world children of all ages eagerly await Christmas Eve to receive the long-awaited Christmas gifts.

Children in the middle of the garbage

The photo is also emblematic of a new but growing phenomenon in Syria: people, especially children, rummaging through garbage. At this time it is almost common to see groups of very young people looking through the waste for anything they can resell, reuse, recycle or even eat. The majority are “thin skeletons” that confirm the very serious damage caused by the “poverty bomb” that the Syrian Church has long denounced and is claiming more victims than the conflict. It is a devastating crisis, the result of the civil war, international sanctions (mainly from the West), and the Caesar Act imposed by the United States, but also the result of internal corruption that enriches very few and brings an entire country to its knees. A country that not many years ago was a symbol of prosperity and coexistence.

Omar Sanadaki (photo 4) is a photojournalist and art photographer living in Damascus. He collaborates with the main international agencies and with his photographs and reports he has testified in recent years to the devastating effects of the war on the population. Especially in the little ones, as can be seen from a long report that he published last spring about children with cancer. A man whose dream, as he confessed on another occasion, is that “someday, even if it’s 50 years from now, my daughters Asli and Zoya can show my photos to the world to denounce what the conflict has done to our country.” Among the most famous images is that of a girl from Eastern Ghouta – an eastern suburb of Damascus that was long a rebel stronghold and the scene of a long siege by the government army – being carried asleep by her father inside a suitcase while fleeing (photo 3).

“Each photo tells a story – the reporter explains to – and to do it in the best possible way we have to find different nuances, seizing the moment and the opportunity, even by chance capturing a dramatic and unexpected event. That day, like other times, I went to a cafe [“La capital”, en Bab Sharqi, en la zona de la ciudad vieja de Damasco] and started people watching from the window. I had already been five or six times, but that day I decided for the first time to take my camera, knowing that something was going to happen”. Suddenly, he continues, “a Santa Claus passed by and I started taking photos. At that moment the boy arrived and stood looking at him in amazement; At first I didn’t see the little boy’s gaze, then with the zoom I fully captured the scene, which on the other hand and fortunately was not disturbed by passing cars or other vehicles. It really was a serendipitous series of coincidences.”

rebuild a community

Since the day I posted the photo, says Omar Sanadaki, “I have received many messages from people who have fallen in love with the image and ask me how they can help the little one.” However, the situation of that child is the same as that of many others in a country destroyed by war and plunged into poverty and neglect. “Children are victims of hunger, they are poor and there is no prospect that this will end in the short term, among other things because there are people who benefit – and exploit them – with their work” rummaging through the garbage. And for the immediate future, there are no signs that things are going to change. “I don’t believe in strong leaders, third countries or realities that can help Syria and its children” because all external actors “have their own interests.” And -he continues- I don’t trust too much in non-governmental organizations, whose capacity for action is limited. We have to trust ourselves, working on the many unresolved problems that the conflict has left us. War is an experience that all nations go through in the course of history and some come out stronger. I hope we will be strong enough to go through the tunnel and out the other side, forgetting these last 10 years to rebuild the nation not just with stones, but starting with the people first, with the human community… I am not optimistic about the immediate future but, inshallah, maybe 15, 20 or 40 years from now things will get better.”

The poverty bomb

Currently in Syria about 90% of the population -according to official data, although the situation on the ground could be much worse- lives in poverty, with less than two euros a day. There are also more than 6.5 million children in the Arab country who need urgent humanitarian aid – the highest number since the start of the war in March 2011 – and an entire generation struggles every day to survive. To them are added the 12.4 million who suffer, according to UN estimates, a daily condition of “food insecurity”. That is why the Damascus government has decided to introduce new austerity measures, such as the temporary reduction of the working hours of public employees and additional closures for the holidays between Christmas and New Year in order to contain expenses as much as possible.

Child labor in waste collection is exploited by unscrupulous entrepreneurs and traders who buy cardboard, cans, glass and other waste for recycling in Turkey, fueling an increasingly thriving trade. The phenomenon is destined to continue if the course of a country adrift is not reversed, where the total number of families below the hunger threshold is close to 40%.

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