Glimmers of Hope: Ali's Life Among Sunflowers

Glimmers of Hope: Ali's Life Among Sunflowers
Naren Briar
July 10, 2018
2 min

With each subtle crunch of the leaves following Ali's footsteps, he walked further down the farm to guide us towards his sunflowers. It was one of the only healthy growing crops that made it through the violent heat of July. Ali was a sharecropper on this farm and hoped to harvest a reasonable amount of vegetables but it seems the heat prevented him from seeing any fruition of his crops. I had brought over some supplies that could be distributed to families. So I was introduced to Ali. After following him around on the farm Ali’s spirits seemed tired. He, like many others fled Sinjar when ISIS invaded. A bright smile appeared on his face when we encountered his six children, after the tour of his crops. Needless to say his children were all incredibly witty, graceful and funny.His eldest daughter and I particularly got along well. Her name was Yasmine, as shown to the right, in the pink butterfly shirt–and she had a good eye for photography. She took my Cannon and asked if she could take some photos. And with her permission, I have some of her work displayed below: