Rosa’s name is most appropriate.
This energetic and eager eleven-year-old girl is a beautiful rose full of laughter and hope blooming in a desolate desert plagued by despair. She and her family of ten are Syrian refugees, living in a make-shift village in the desert, just outside of the UN’s Zaatari refugee camp in Mafraq, Jordan.
I met Rosa on my first trip to Jordan last year, so I was eager to visit her and her family again on our return this winter. As our car pulled up to the family’s small, but sturdy pre-fabricated aluminum home (which our donors helped to fund through our partners at Dar Al Yasmin), Rosa was among the first to run up and greet us.
After exchanging lots of hugs, smiles, and high fives, Rosa asked to borrow my camera. It was only my small point-and-shoot, so I willingly parted with it and sent her on her way to document life through its tiny lens. Although it returned with a little bit of grime, it brought back some incredible images, as well.
Below is a sample of a few of the images Rosa was able to produce. She’s able to capture a side of the families that I cannot. They know her. They trust her. They laugh with her. They relax around her. And that comes through in the images.
Great composition. Faces that tell a story. Eyes that have seen so much, but yet still twinkle with hope.
The children are not afraid to get up close and personal — and a bit silly — with Rosa. They’re more reserved with me.
Rosa captures friends and family as they look through images of themselves on our team member’s iPad.
And here’s a photo of Rosa and her beautiful smile, bidding us farewell as we prepared to drive away. Her face is a bit blurred by one of the smudges the kids left on the lens cover. A precious reminder of their sweet hands.
