In Turkey, a Syrian man and his son crawl into a garbage bin to collect cartons, plastic and cans to sell to help feed their family.
The brutally tiring work starts just after dawn and often goes on almost to dusk. Even just walking the route of more than 10 kilometres is tiring.
The man is Firaz and the boy is Uday, his seven-year-old son. Firaz, 25, is missing part of his arm and three fingers on the other hand. He lost them in industrial accidents when he was a boy.
After bombs destroyed his house in Syria, he fled to Turkey with his family eight months ago and they now live in Izmir.
Firaz received a disability pension in Syria, before the war. Now he has no choice and must work, and he accepts his fate willingly. “This is my future – hard work to feed my kids. This reality is my future.”
Every day, he takes what he gathers to a collection point. He is provided with a trolley and he trudges back, hauling a load of up to 100 kilograms, his left upper arm hooked over one handle, his injured right hand awkwardly clutching the other.
For this backbreaking work he receives the equivalent of five or six dollars a day. Sympathetic Turkish passers-by frequently give him small donations.
Uday sometimes misses out on school, which he attends, for the odd day or two to help out his father. He climbs deep into the bins to reach bottles and cans at the bottom.
The boy does not begrudge the work, even if he admits it is sometimes exhausting. “I want to work with my father because both his hands are cut off.”
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You can help such vulnerable families rebuild their lives by donating to Muslim and international organizations that support refugees.