Christchurch was shattered by an earthquake less than a decade ago and forced to rebuild itself physically and spiritually. Now it's been hit with a much different but devastating form of trauma.
Ahmed Tani poses a portrait in front of Hagley College in Christchurch, New Zealand, Sunday, March 17, 2019. Tani settled in Christchurch after fleeing civil war in Somalia. The New Zealand city seemed a place of peace. It was more than just physically distant from the strife he had known. With its leafy streets, vibrant gardens and green public parks, the Garden City was even visually a world away from his war-scorched past.
A teacher in Somalia, in Christchurch he first became a taxi driver, a choice made by many refugees whose qualifications are often not accepted in their new homeland. He struggled at first to settle in to a place so different from any he had known. But bit by bit he accepted Christchurch and it accepted him. It became home.
Gradually though, Christchurch rebuilt, dragging itself up again both physically and spiritually. New buildings sprang from old and the community formed stronger bonds that allowed a human resurgence, a rebirth.Tani was walking toward the Al Noor mosque for afternoon prayers. He was only a few hundred yards away when he heard the sound of gunfire for the first time since he left Somalia two decades before.
For the second time in a decade, Christchurch faces the task of restoring a shaken sense of faith, of community, of security.“That’s what got us through the earthquakes,” she said. “We will come back from this and we will continue our path of welcoming people from all nations, all religions, from all cultures to our city.”“The strength of the ties among the people that live in the communities, that is going to be the measure of the recovery,” she said.
In the days after, Tani walked a city in which roads had been rendered impassable and knocked on the doors of hundreds refugee families to ensure they were safe. For months and even years after, Tani’s center provided a rallying point for refugees, many of whom had escaped wars only to be confronted with the lasting trauma of living through a natural disaster.
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