Baltimore County photojournalist documents relief efforts in Beirut

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Two weeks after the first planeloads of Americans fled Lebanon and Israel and arrived at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, local photojournalist David Snyder made plans to head to the Catholic Relief Services offices in Beirut.

A former CRS employee, Snyder contracted with the Baltimore-based nonprofit to document its humanitarian campaign to provide food, shelter and medication to the displaced men, women and children fleeing the bombing and invasion of Southern Lebanon. Snyder first flew to Cyprus. Then, when flights into Beirut were canceled, he hitched a ride on a Canadian cruise ship leaving from Cyprus to Beirut to rescue Canadian citizens trapped in the conflict.

“I’ve come in to help photograph the relief effort and help tell the IDP’s (Internally displaced person) story,” Snyder said. “It’s for the Catholic Relief Services Web site, used partly as a fundraising tool, as well as to create awareness in media.”

Snyder, who now lives in Parkville, described the growing relief crisis in Lebanon by phone Friday as rockets shook his hotel windows. He confirmed the first reports that the Israeli bombing campaign earlier that day had not cut off just Hezbollah supply lines to the north, but the last roads in and out of the country from which fuel and food could reach civilians as well.

He noted that among the estimated 900,000 displaced Lebanese are tens of thousands of female domestic workers from Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

“Many are young, uneducated, 19 or 20, from rural Sri Lanka,” Snyder said. “They are here legitimately, but they have been left to fend for themselves without paperwork or the means to return home.”

Recently, Catholic Relief Services published a book of his photos from disasters and emergencies around the world, titled “The Road to Survival,” in a limited printing, distributed to CRS donors.

A 1988 graduate of Milford Mill High School in Baltimore County, Snyder received his bachelor’s degree in English from Washington College and master’s in professional writing from Towson University — never expecting the kind of career he’s had since joining the communications department of CRS in 1996.

He has traveled to more than 30 countries and lived in Africa for the past seven years, before returning to Maryland in October.

He has photographed the tragedy of war, famine and disease in Kosovo, Sudan and Rwanda and followed earthquakes into India and Pakistan and the tsunami into Indonesia.

He’s been to the West Bank and Gaza before, working out of CRS offices there too.

“I moved back [to Maryland] in October; it just seemed like it made sense, it was time,” Snyder said. “I lived overseas for seven years, which was a different experience that not a lot of people get. But the U.S. will always be home.”

Reacquainting, however, is on hold again — for perhaps four to five weeks.

Catholic Relief Services at a glance

Catholic Relief Services was founded in 1943 by the Catholic Bishops of the United States. They are headquartered at 209 W. Fayette St. in Baltimore. Their mission, according to their Web site is to assist the poor and disadvantaged, leveraging the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to alleviate human suffering, promote development of all people, and to foster charity and justice throughout the world.

CRS operates on five continents and in 99 countries and aids the poor by providing direct assistance where needed, then encouraging people to help with their own development.

Mailing Address:

Catholic Relief Services

P.O. Box 17090

Baltimore, MD 21203-7090

Staff Contacts: 410-625-2220

- www.crs.org

rcassie@baltimoreexaminer.com

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