LONDON -- A 14-year-old boy from Aleppo,sex thú v?i ng?a Syria, stares into the camera with an uncertain expression on his face.
Nour El-Deen is standing in Kara Tepe Refugee Camp in Lesbos, Greece. He's just been talking about his dreams.
His story -- just like all the others that make up the devastating photo series "It Could Be Us" -- is one of heartbreak and fragile hopes.
SEE ALSO: Spreading the love: Paris love locks to be sold to help refugeesThe series was captured by photographer Tara Todras-Whitehill and produced by Game of Thronesactress Lena Headey.
Speaking with Mashableon the phone, Headey explained how the project came about after a visit to the refugee camp back in June with the International Rescue Committee (IRC). After meeting with the people in the camp, they decided to return and document their stories on camera.
"People want a voice, and they don't want to be forgotten," said Headey.
"We had talked about revisiting and letting people just tell us what their dreams were and the hopes that they had still after all they've been through."
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable "People want a voice, and they don't want to be forgotten
Headey hopes they'll raise awareness for the situations faced by those living in the camps.
"I think everybody that night came away asking 'What can I do?' that maybe they hadn't asked before," she said.
"I just think if you look into any of those eyes... which was the whole point of Tara kind of making them that size; it's unavoidable... you know, you can't avoid a gaze.
"And you wouldn't even need to read half the stories because it's in their eyes, isn't it? When you look at those images you just think, that person has something to tell me..."
The photos were taken in Kara Tepe camp in Lesbos, Greece, in September and displayed at an exhibition in London in November.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable "My life dream was to grow up and become a university student. My life dream was that my mother [would] choose my bride. But my mother died and my house was destroyed. My mother died inside the house. My siblings and I went out to buy stuff for my birthday. When we came back, we saw how the house was destroyed. We came here and suffered a lot. Now I just want to go to my father and see him. I don’t want anything other than to be with my father."
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable "I was living happily with my children. I have many sons and daughters. The war came and suffering came with it. We got lost. I left with my son. My children are in different places. We came here without expecting this -- exhaustion and suffering. We’ve been suffering for five years. My son and his kids, me and my husband, we all became ill. All of this is because of the war. May God have mercy on us. We wish that God would help us to get to a safe country so that I, my son and his kids may live in stability. My dream was to see each one of my kids living in a house and to educate their children. My grandchildren left school. We left because of war. We suffered and we’ve been suffering for five years. My hope now is to settle in a safe country, me and my son."
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable "From my childhood -- when I was four to five years old and during primary school, in 1980 -- it was the Iran-Iraq war that lasted for eight years. The [Gulf] War lasted for one year. Then once the Americans intervened, they attacked them, and the siege began. After the siege, the Americans came back in 2003 to topple the dictator, they said. They toppled him and then they left and Daesh [the so-called Islamic State] came. During my 40 years, I didn’t live one good day in Iraq. It’s all been dictatorship, war and besieging. We just want to live in peace."
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable "On my journey, I was abused by men. The sea was difficult, [it was a] bad experience. Now I want an education. My dream is to support my elderly mother. I haven’t found a solution yet. We aren’t helped with problems here. We didn’t want to leave Eritrea, but the leaders are bad for people. Everyone is forced to go to [a military training academy called] Sawa after grade eight. That is why I came here. Now I want to continue my education."
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable "I was hoping I would live like anybody else, but ever since I opened my eyes in this world, I was never happy in my life. My dream is just like the dreams of others. I’d like to live in one of the European countries, because in Iraq there is no democracy and no freedom. It’s a fight between the Sunni, Shia, Yazidis and Kurds -- a group of religious and secular parties that appear to be loyal to Iraq and their nationalism, but are mafias buying and selling the Iraqi people no matter their race. I’d like to live like the rest of the people, in freedom and prosperity. I don’t differentiate between any human race on the face of the earth. There is no difference, whether this is a Muslim or a Christian or a Yazidi."
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable "I lived in Iraq for about nine years in Baghdad. I wasn’t able to continue living in Iraq because of the American occupation. I studied until about the third grade, then we immigrated to Syria in 2006. We lived there for about 10 years. I wasn’t able to continue studying because of what happened in Syria, [because] of bombing and displacement. It became dangerous for me to get out of the house or to go to school. Schools were bombed. We immigrated to Turkey and stayed for a year where I wasn’t able to continue my studying. I sat at home because of the residence visa issue and the conditions they require in Turkey to join school. We came here to seek refuge in the European countries. We had to stay here in Greece and face the suffering of no education and bad health conditions that no human would accept. It’s a harsh reality. My dream was to continue studying, get a future and settle with my family in a house. But the conditions of life changed everything and we had to travel and reach here. Our dream has changed: to be to go to Germany or any European country to settle, to continue studying, to reach a future where we can continue our life."
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable "My dream when I was small was to travel to my dad in Germany. I haven’t seen him for two years."[The photographer's note reads: Zahraa started crying after talking about her father and couldn’t continue the interview.]
Lena Headey on Trump, the refugee crisis, and the importance of looking out for one another.
Headey, who often tweets about political and humanitarian issues, is clearly very concerned about the current state of the world. She was active on Twitter throughout the US election campaign, and say she's "still slightly in shock" over the result.
"Clearly the President-elect is not the most open-minded and inclusive of human beings," she said, when asked what affect she thinks the election result might have on the refugee crisis. "I think we know that so far. I guess we just have to see... see what's in store."
"I think it's all worrying, do you know what I mean? I think the position we're in right now, the world over is worrying. I don't particularly see any sort of great, strong humanitarian leaders amongst us at the moment."
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Cersei Lannister may be one of the most vicious figures in Game of Thrones, but Headey is clearly a million miles from her character.
As well as her activism and humanitarian work, she often uses Twitter as a platform to spread messages of encouragement and support to her fans. She told Mashableshe worries about what the world will look like for her children in 10 or 20 years if people don't keep consciously striving to do the right thing.
"You know everybody we know... even if it seems everything is okay, we know from our own experience that some days are harder than others and I think some people have a really tough time," she said. "Whether it's illness, poverty, self-doubt, hearts being broken, terrible news... I don't know, I just think there's greatness in the world and I think one of the worst things is feeling unseen and unloved.
"So I kind of like to spread a bit of joy and, you know, inclusion. I teach my children that every day: that you cannot exclude people. We are the same. You know, Mother Theresa said it: 'We belong to each other'.
"And we've kind of lost that along the way."