The award-winning {photograph} — of a person who had misplaced a leg in a bomb assault in Syria, hoisting into the air his son, born with out limbs, any other casualty of the rustic’s civil battle — went viral remaining 12 months in Italy.
On Friday, Munzir El Nezzel, the person within the image, and his son Mustafa arrived in Italy after a outstanding effort by way of the organizers of the Siena Global Picture Awards, to convey them and their circle of relatives from Turkey, the place that they had fled after Syria.
“We’re coming, thanks,” 6-year-old Mustafa, smiling extensively, mentioned in a video message recorded ahead of he and his circle of relatives — El Nezzel, the boy’s mom and two sisters ages 1 and four — boarded a aircraft in Ankara, Turkey, on Thursday to fly to Italy. “We adore Italia,” he added.
The image of Mustafa and his father, each with loving smiles, which was once taken in January 2021 by way of Turkish photographer Mehmet Aslan and known as “Hardship of Lifestyles,” was once declared picture of the 12 months on the Siena awards remaining 12 months.
The emotional and stunning image made headlines in Italy and unfold the world over on social media, spurring the pageant’s organizers to do so and get started a fundraising power to get remedy for father and son.
Munzir El Nezzel, little Mustafa, his mom Zeynep and two daughters Nur and Sacide are flying to Rome these days. They are going to be welcomed by way of the administrators of the Siena Global Picture Award, volunteers of the Misericordia and a cultural mediator. In Siena, a brand new lifestyles will start. percent.twitter.com/7oHEkJBnDe
— Ines San Martin (@inesanma) January 21, 2022
The pageant’s organizers contacted diplomats, hospitals, rehabilitation facilities and the Catholic diocese in Siena to host the Syrian circle of relatives, in order that Mustafa and his father may get remedy and prosthetics.
“The image was once past all creativeness,” mentioned Luca Venturi, an engineer who based the Siena pictures pageant, which bestowed the award, about six years in the past. “We idea shall we additionally transcend our worry of no longer with the ability to do the rest for this circle of relatives.”
Like every international locations, Italy can factor visas for humanitarian causes, however refugees wish to be subsidized by way of a neighborhood group that handles bureaucracy and offers monetary toughen.
Motivated by way of the good fortune of the crowdfunding effort, the nonprofit that organizes the pictures pageant determined to sponsor the Syrian circle of relatives.
“It was once a large dream for everyone,” Venturi mentioned.
As Venturi labored his connections in Italy, looking to get permission to convey the circle of relatives from Turkey, he stored common touch with El Nezzel by way of WhatsApp, the usage of Google Translate to keep up a correspondence in Arabic with the 33-year-old father of 3.
Venturi additionally despatched aerial photographs of Siena’s walled medieval town middle to give an explanation for to the circle of relatives, who had lived with out a tv for a decade, the place they had been going to transport.
El Nezzel spoke back with exclamation issues.
When the circle of relatives was once informed this month that their visas had come via, “they had been in disbelief,” Venturi mentioned, including that during a video, Mustafa did somersaults and laughed, shouting “I really like you” to him.
Mustafa was once born with a congenital dysfunction that resulted from drugs that his mom needed to take whilst pregnant with him, after she was once sickened by way of nerve fuel launched all through the battle in Syria. He’ll want long-term remedy with the intention to stroll or are living extra independently. His folks these days raise him round, and certainly one of his two sisters additionally is helping him round the home.
Prosthetics professionals in Italy will meet with Mustafa and his father in coming weeks to design new synthetic limbs. El Nezzel’s remedy is perhaps more uncomplicated as a result of he’s an grownup. Running with a 6-year-old shall be more difficult, consistent with the medical doctors and engineers of Italy’s main rehabilitation and prosthetics middle.
Gregorio Teti, director of the ability, the Centro Protesi Inail, in Vigorso di Budrio in northern Italy, mentioned that the daddy may get well maximum of his mobility in a couple of weeks.
For Mustafa, the method may well be longer, beginning with easy prosthetics on his higher limbs which can be normally more uncomplicated to simply accept and get acquainted with. Later, engineers will design synthetic limbs round Mustafa’s hips.
“It’s a technical but additionally a mental finding out curve,” Teti mentioned. “His global will trade, or even accepting that takes time.”
As Mustafa grows, his prosthetics should be adjusted to his converting frame.
“As a kid, he has time on his aspect,” Teti mentioned. “Analysis will more than likely permit him to power a automobile and get to paintings autonomously when he’s older.”
However he can also be going through the demanding situations of migrating to a overseas nation, finding out a special language and growing a brand new lifestyles.
“Leaving your house nation is at all times a huge soar, however we are hoping to assist them discover a new house right here,” mentioned Anna Ferretti, who’s accountable for town’s department of Caritas, a Catholic help affiliation this is providing the El Nezzels an condo at the outskirts of Siena and can duvet their day by day monetary wishes for a 12 months.