Tara Jaffery
About the artist:
Tara Jaffery is an internist working in Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan. She was a FAIMER (Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research) fellow at the time she took this photograph in late 2005, when northern Pakistan experienced the worst earthquake in its history. She sends this photograph “for the people of Nepal…a little ray of hope.”
About the artwork:
“When Nepal suffered its first catastrophic earthquake a few weeks ago, I remembered, in a flashback, horrific scenes of the October 2005 earthquake in northern Pakistan, which left 100,000 dead, countless injured and millions homeless. We received many of the most seriously injured people in our tertiary-care hospital in Islamabad. The complicated crush injuries and the sense of despair were beyond description. Villages were gone, cities reduced to rubble. Every victim had a heart-wrenching story of loss and tragedy. How do we move on to repairing or rebuilding, I remember thinking, and how do we remember what is gone but also look to the future with hope?
I photographed this little girl in my hospital one month after the earthquake. It was Eid, the happiest Muslim celebration of the year, which many of us were spending with patients in the hospital. Her name was Maryam, and she was three years old. Despite her injuries, she was dressed up and happy, and I caught her putting on some more lipstick all by herself. I thought, God bless her, my little ray of hope.”
Visual Editor:
Justin Sanders
1 thought on “A Little Ray of Hope”
I love everything about this! The photo of the precious girl with her bling and dolls, the back story, and that Dr. Jaffery took the time to share both in the wake of Nepal’s tragedy. The fact that Dr. Jaffery lives and works in Pakistan makes it that much better. Because of Pulse, today I feel a human connection to a person a third of the way around the world I didn’t know of before this morning. Talk about HOPE…for humanity and the planet