She was a chairperson of the Council for Aboriginal Rights. She fought inequality by pointing out the lack of logic and highlighting damages it inflicted on a society. She wrote letters, articles, gave interviews, held thousands of meetings all over the country.
In the years following the coup d’etat of 1973, Roberto Kozak and other diplomats helped free and emigrate from Chile between 25,000 and 35,000 political prisoners. He was dubbed “Schindler of Latin America.”
The islanders of Lesbos, Kos, Chios, Samos, Rhodes and Leros welcomed a majority of the 900,000 refugees who arrived in Europe in 2015. Before the governments admitted that the wave of immigrants is growing, the fishermen, medical doctors and local activists saved the lives of the immigrants and took them into their care, even though they themselves had been affected by the economic crisis for years.
Josephine and Marie. Both were Hutu, and both helped Tutsi. Journalist Wojciech Tochman wrote: “Tens of Rwandan men and women found time and energy to talk to me and tell me how the genocide touched them personally. […] for obvious reasons, I did not reveal their first or family names.” Over a dozen years after the civil war, it is still dangerous to talk about certain events.
Chechnya became her calling. She was a correspondent of the opposition Novaya Gazeta bi-weekly from the Second Chechen War. She exposed the crimes of the Russian forces and the Chechen units led by Ramzan Kadyrov allied with the Russians, the crimes of Chechen partisans and the situation of the Russian recruits. She also supported the movement of mothers defending their children conscripted in the army.
“I used to think women were like flowers, they needed to be looked after, they were not cut out for politics,” Lech Wałęsa admitted. “It was Alina who changed my opinion on the matter.” She wrote down the initial six August Postulates, and developed – together with her colleagues – point 16 which related to healthcare.
“One evening in early December 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, I was sitting at the front of a bus, the coloured section. The Whites sat in the section intended for the Whites. More and more of them were boarding the bus, and in the end they occupied all the seats. In such cases we, the Blacks, had to give up our seats. But I did not budge. The white driver said: “We need the seats at the front.” I did not get up. I was sick of obeying the Whites’ orders.”
She arranged flats for Jews in hiding, provided false documents, taught them prayers and behaviour at a church. She entered the ghetto via the Courts building on Leszno Street a number of times in order to lead the children to the “Aryan side.”
Krzysztof Miller, a photographer, spent 25 years documenting transformations, revolutions, and above all wars taking place at the turn of the 21st century. He took pictures during the Round Table Talks in Poland and the events in the Balkans. He travelled back and forth to Afghanistan, Cambodia, the Republic of South Africa, Chechnya and Rwanda. One tragedy gave way to another.
Nut Sen, Huy Sarin, Ngen Ngon, Khon Any, Hang Romny, Duch Keam, Meas Proeung, Aki Ra. They survived the brutal Pol Pot’s regime and they helped others persevere. How?
In April 2015, Jacob Schoen passed his high school graduation exam. Soon after, he read in a paper that a boat carrying 800 refugees sank on the Mediterranean. He gathered information on rescue missions, found out what kind of ships are used in such missions, counted how much money he would need, and set off for Hamburg, a port city, to meet with experts. In autumn, he founded an organization called Jugend Rettet.
“If this is the end, I want to hold that girl’s hand.” For the past 23 years David Nott, a Welsh surgeon, has been taking an unpaid leave and spending three months in the areas affected by conflicts or catastrophes. The aforementioned girl was being operated on during the anticipated air raids in the Gaza Strip.
He wanted to be a diplomat. The Second World War made it impossible for him to pursue his dream. Instead, Jan Kozielewski, aka Karski, became the most famous emissary between the Polish Underground State and the Polish Government in Exile. In the summer of 1942, Karski undertook his most important mission – to deliver to London information on the situation in the country, including materials which documented the extermination policy of the occupying power towards the Jews.
He protected Jews, Poles and Ukrainians. He resided together with his wife in Kupychiv, a Czech settlement in Volhynia. The wartime, first the Soviet, then German occupation, the massacres of Poles in Volhynia – all these were covered in Jelinek’s memoirs. He witnessed much atrocities and yet he never remained indifferent.
On Sunday, 25 August 1968, she took her 3 month old son, left the house and headed towards the Red Square. She hid banners under the pram’s mattress; one of them read in Czech: “Long live free and independent Czechoslovakia,” the other: “For your freedom and ours.”
The Civil March for Aleppo set off from Berlin on 26 December 2016. Walking in the direction of the refugees from war-torn areas, they crossed Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey.
“I was running towards an ambulance, holding a wounded man,” says Malath Khafsheh. “I put him on the stretcher, […] and tended to his wounds using basic means. […] He asked me: ‘Am I going to die?’ Being an emergency worker, I ask myself this question every time I pull someone out of the rubble. […] the ambulance and hospitals are frequently under fire, we are often short of the right medicines. However, there are people, like the one I mentioned, who conquer death. I smiled and said to him: ‘You are not going to die, you conquered death, we conquered it together.’ That is why I joined the Civil Defence.”
Since 1991, Dr Bartolo, head of the First Aid and Admissions Centre on the Italian island of Lampedusa, has been treating refugees who attempt to cross the Mediterranean in order to reach Europe. He is on duty since 7.30am each morning, and spends the nights at the port with the new arrivals. His wife and three children do not see much of him.