PROJECTS: Deprived of Adolescence: 23

Leila, a 14-year-old girl from Zugdidi, Georgia. She escaped her home at age 13 to live with a boy she fell in love with on social media.Traveling from Apkhazia to Georgia, they crossed over the Enguri River which forms the border between the breakaway region of Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia. Leila, having no travel documents, had to swim across the river quietly at midnight, crossing to Georgia, bypassing Russian and Aphkhazian militants.

Leila, a 14-year-old girl from Zugdidi, Georgia. She escaped her home at age 13 to live with a boy she fell in love with on social media. 

Traveling from Apkhazia to Georgia, they crossed over the Enguri River which forms the border between the breakaway region of Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia.  

Leila, having no travel documents, had to swim across the river quietly at midnight, crossing to Georgia, bypassing Russian and Aphkhazian militants.