CAROLE ALFRAHA

Today we bring you the work of Carole Alfarah, born in 1981 in Damascus, Syria. In 2004, wishing to learn more about the medium of photography, Carole traveled to Brussels and studied at the Contrast Photography School, focusing her work on marginalized groups and youth. In 2007, Carole began to work professionally as a photojournalist, freelancing with Syrian and regional newspapers and magazines. Since the conflict in Syria began, she started concentrating her efforts to tell the stories of the victims. Carole is currently based between Damascus and Barcelona, Spain.

Waiting for hope

Waiting for hope

Waiting For Hope

“A Syrian becomes a refugee every 15 seconds” said the The UN’s refugee agency . After three years of a brutal conflict in Syria, the country has seen a third of its population internally displaced or refugees in what aid agencies say it is the worst humanitarian disaster in modern times. The Syrian refugees who managed to enter illegally to the Spanish city of Melilla report a litany of intense feelings and fears; anxiety, sadness, pain, humiliation, despair, surrender, misery and a little bit of hope. Nonetheless, the European countries still have not opened their borders to welcome these refugees from one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory. The conflict has forced Syrians to search for illegal means to enter to the European territories.

Waiting for hope

Waiting for hope

Waiting for hope

A long, arduous road has forced thousands of Syrians refugees who fled the brutal war in their home country searching for peace and safety in Europe. They travel from Syria to Lebanon and then traverse on to Algeria in order to enter Morocco illegally. Once in Morocco, they pay local traffickers to obtain fake Moroccan passports in order to enter Melilla, a small Spanish enclave on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast. Once inside Melilla, they feel that they have arrived to the true safety of Europe, but they are often shocked because they have to wait many weeks and months before they can receive asylum the European Union. Syrian refugees have described their existence in Melilla as if they are living in an ‘open prison.’ Currently, they wait in limbo in order to have the opportunity to live in peace again in a new land.

Waiting for hope

Waiting for hope

Waiting for hope

Waiting for hope

Waiting for hope

Waiting for hope

Waiting for hope

Waiting for hope

Waiting for hope

Waiting for hope

In 2011, Carole received the UNICEF Prize of Arab Media Award for Children’s Rights and the Jury prize for the International photography competition ‘Femmes au Travail’ (Women at Work) organized by the association One Shot in Marseille, France. In 2013, she won a scholarship to attend Foundry Photojournalism workshop in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her work After the Bombing was
presented in Angkor Photo Festival 2013 in Cambodia, and  in The Baltic Photo Biennale in Russia.

To view more of Carole’s work please visit her website.