Children of the Shirajian orphanage receiving treatment, Aleppo

The photograph was taken around 1921 in the city of Aleppo, Syria. Armenian orphan children are being treated for the eye disease trachoma. A woman in a white dress and headscarf sits examining a child’s eyes; around her stand girls in dark dresses and women in white aprons.

This is the Shirajian orphanage, founded in 1915 by the Reverend Aharon Shirajian of Marash. He devoted his life to saving thousands of children who had escaped the Genocide. The nurses fought not only hunger but also epidemics. The photograph has survived thanks to the Project Save archive.