Once in a while I'm invited to witness something so moving that I need to share it in visual form here on the blog, and last night's trip to Logan Airport was exactly that.
(You can learn more about this story and donate to help these kids get settled in the US here.)
Nine years ago, Mangok Bol's brother and sister-in-law were murdered in their South Sudanese village. Four of their seven children were kidnapped by the attackers. Mangok worked to rescue three of those children and reunite them with their siblings who were not kidnapped. One child remains missing.
Last night at 11pm at Logan Airport, Mangok welcomed his niece and three nephews to the U.S. and I can't put into words how wonderful it was to be there to witness this moment and support RefugePoint and Team Mangok.
Here's Mangok, checking the arrivals board as the plane approached...
And making a quick call to Sasha Chanoff, Founder and CEO of RefugePoint... (who was so sad to miss this reunion, after he and RefugePoint have been working with Mangok for 20+ years - but he was stuck home with covid!) but luckily the documentary filmmakers were there to capture the moment of the phone call)
And then the kids came through the arrivals gate, and the group erupted.
It was smiles all around...
And huge hugs.
And cool uncle high-fives.
They took a few minutes to talk to the assembled group... which after such a long journey was so kind of them...
Mangok told the kids about how so many people worked together to help them get here...
They posed for a final, joyful photo with the whole group...
And then headed on their way.
If you can spare a few minutes, watch Mangok's video here, and donate to help the kids get settled in their new apartment here.
xx Jess
P.S. These photos are posted low-res for the blog. High res versions of these images and all the other photos I took last night are available for download here.