Aleppo

For five years I lived in Turkey, a three-hour drive from Aleppo, Syria. I frequently spent weekends shopping the bazaars and gazing in awe at the fourteenth century architecture.

This lovely, ancient hub of the Silk Road has been shattered—children murdered, grandchildren starving, growing up without schooling, family, and laughter. Millions camp abroad, helpless to stop this cataclysm. My piece shows people fleeing, hurrying to fleets of green buses that will carry them to bleak tent camps in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Greece, and elsewhere. Once a city of six million people, five thousand now leave Aleppo daily.