“I saw the army burn my neighbor’s house. They set it on fire and took photographs while it burned. The next day I saw the same house on TV, except the headline claimed that it had been destroyed by ‘terrorists.’ The army began to arrest 300 people every day. They were arresting everyone. They came for me during Ramadan. I was eating with my entire family when suddenly we heard the sound of a car outside. Soldiers kicked down the door and they tied my hands behind my back. My children were screaming. The soldiers said: ‘We know you are working with the opposition! You are a terrorist!’ I told them: ‘Please. We are poor people. We have done nothing. We are trying to live.’ I never thought I’d see my family again. They brought me to the prison and blindfolded me. They made me kneel on the floor. They asked me questions about the opposition, but I knew nothing. When they asked me a question, I only had two seconds to answer before I was kicked. They beat me for hours while they questioned me. I begged them to stop. I kept promising that I would tell them if I heard anything. Then they attached cables to my body. They would run electricity through me for 25 seconds, then they would stop, and they would ask another question. When I said: ‘I don’t know,’ the electricity would start again. They kept me for three days. When they finally let me go, I couldn’t stand. I went home and hugged my family but I had to go straight to work. Because there was no food in the house and no one had eaten for days.” (Lesvos, Greece)

I was mostly drawn to this story because of the photograph’s background and the facial expressions all three boys’ have. Just by looking at the father’s frowning facial expression, the setting, and the way the father tightly embraces both of his sons, I could really tell that he and his sons have experienced intense hardships, and that he is willing to do whatever it takes to stick together as a family. In the post description, it tells us how after returning home from being severly tortured by the army for days since he was falsley accused of working with terrorists, he had no other choice but to go straight to work because he needed to feed his sons who hadn’t eaten during his three day absence. Reading this story really touched me because as Americans, I don’t  think many of us realize  how war can affect families, especially children. These boys have no sense of freedom, privilege, and protection in their country where as in the United States we have nothing but that. Knowing that there are many families experiencing similar circumstances like they are, I think it’s important to spread awareness about their situation. These people have no one  to fight for them. I believe that spreading awareness to people or countries who have the ability to provide support is the first step in helping them get just that.