Alessio Romenzi

Lebanon, Jbeil region. Azzedine Al Halo is 37 and he came from Aleppo. A former tire repairer he was forced to flee Aleppo three years ago after the destruction of his house and shop due to a bombing. All his family is settled as officially registered refugees in Lebanon. Arriving at the Lebanese border they moved first to the city of Tripoli then, after few months, they moved again. Azzedine lives now around Jbeil/Byblos, 35 km north of Beirut in Mount Lebanon region, with his wife and 8 children, Saleh (13), Denia (11), Marieh (10), Rouha (7), May (5), Nouran (3) and little twins Mohammed and Sami, who are just two years old and were born in Lebanon. He occasionally manages to find small jobs as agricolture collector but, with a totally provisional salary, he can not provide support to his family. “I could bring almost anything from my house when we were forced to flee Aleppo and we had to sell all my wife’s jewelery to survive here in Lebanon. I couldn’t bring my driving licence, nor my diploma certificate. I barely was able to keep my family documents and my ID. Here, in Lebanon, nobody wants to rent to me a place because I have 8 children. That’s why I can not take all the kids with me and some of them are living at neighbours place at the moment” said Azzedine. “The most important item to me is my Identity card. That means everything. It represents my identity, who I am”. Alessio Romenzi