“In October, Washington Post photographer Linda Davidson and I set off for Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon to report on the Syrian refugee crisis, one of the largest forced migrations of people since World War II.  Our goal was to document the size and complexity of the crisis, showing its effects on the lives of individual refugees as well as the lasting impacts on the countries hosting them. We broke the crisis down into 18 personal stories of a wide range of refugees. Linda and I interviewed and photographed widows and orphans, the wealthy, the wounded, children and the elderly, those surviving in camps, and those suffering in urban slums. To capture the full range of refugee life, we witnessed a birth and a wedding, classrooms and operating rooms, and we visited a cemetery where families mourned not just for their dead, but for the fact that they are buried in foreign soil. We saw terrible misery and inspiring stories of resilience and survival. We hope the portraits of these refugees, and the nations struggling to help them, will further an understanding of one of the most daunting human crises in recent memory. These people, and these countries, will never be the same.”— Written by Kevin Sullivan. Photos and videos by Linda Davidson. Graphics by Sohail Al-Jamea, Emily Chow, Richard Johnson and Gene Thorp. Design by Tim Wong. Development by Connor Jennings. Production by Anup Kaphle. Data from UNHCR.
© 2013 The Washingon Post

• Approximately 126 thousand people killed in Syria