3rd place
bronze star award
Courtnay Robbins Bragagnolo
united states 
title
Refugees of Kobane
In January 2015, just weeks before Kobane was liberated from ISIS, I went to Suruc to document life in the Kurdish refugee camps. It was a cold winter and supplies were limited, but people pulled together and shared what they could. Families tried to create some sense of normalcy for their children, who had been traumatized by the atrocities of war. I spent time with refugees who had been there for months. Everyone had a different story to tell about the horrific violence they had seen, yet they all shared a common thread of fierce patriotism. They cried for their country and loved ones who had been murdered fighting to defend it. Yet they all promised they would one day return and rebuild Kobane.
Though many countries participated in the airstrikes that helped liberate Kobane from ISIS, few countries have made a genuine effort to create a safe and sanitary home for the refugees of this war. Through these photos, it is my aim to show refugees as people we can all relate too and promote respectful and humane treatment to victims of war and asylum seekers.
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entry description
When ISIS invaded Kobane, Syria in the fall of 2014, thousands of Kurds hastily gathered their families fled to the nearby Turkish border. They waited in refugee camps in Southern Turkey as a violent war destroyed their homeland. After months of fighting and countless airstrikes, ISIS was pushed out of Kobane. The city was left in ruins, with dead bodies, rubble and undetonated explosives filling the streets. Though nearly a year has past since the fighting began, many citizens of Kobane still live in what they thought would be temporary refugee camps in Suruc, Turkey.In January 2015, just weeks before Kobane was liberated from ISIS, I went to Suruc to document life in the Kurdish refugee camps. It was a cold winter and supplies were limited, but people pulled together and shared what they could. Families tried to create some sense of normalcy for their children, who had been traumatized by the atrocities of war. I spent time with refugees who had been there for months. Everyone had a different story to tell about the horrific violence they had seen, yet they all shared a common thread of fierce patriotism. They cried for their country and loved ones who had been murdered fighting to defend it. Yet they all promised they would one day return and rebuild Kobane.
Though many countries participated in the airstrikes that helped liberate Kobane from ISIS, few countries have made a genuine effort to create a safe and sanitary home for the refugees of this war. Through these photos, it is my aim to show refugees as people we can all relate too and promote respectful and humane treatment to victims of war and asylum seekers.
back to gallery
