In 1972, a photojournalist captured the moment when nine-year-old Phuc escaped an airstrike. The village had just been hit by a firebomb, which claimed the lives of two of the girl’s family members. The photo shows the terrified nine-year-old running naked down the road after her clothes caught fire. Phuc suffered a third-degree burn on her back, and doctors did not think she would survive. However, after one year of treatment, the condition stabilized. Half a century of pain from the intense scarring later, the now 59-year-old woman has received her latest skin treatment. The clinic in Miami in the USA has treated the woman for free for several years, writes Sky News. The photographer who took the famous photo, Nick Ut, was present during Phuc’s last skin treatment. Photo: Lynne Sladky / AP – No longer a victim Despite great pain, young Phuc recovered from the injuries. In 1992, she moved to Canada with her husband. They still live there today. – Now, 50 years later, I am no longer a victim of war. I’m not the Napalm girl. Now I’m a friend, a helper, I’m a grandmother and now I’m a survivor crying for peace, Phuc said in an interview with CBS. Retired AP photographer Nick Ut took the world-famous photo of Phuc. Last week he came to Miami to mark the end of her treatment. – Even the doctor said she would die, the 71-year-old said during an interview with CBS. The iconic photograph was taken on June 8, 1972. Out later received a Pulitzer Prize for the image. Now that Phuc has finished her treatments, she no longer feels like a victim of war. Photo: Lynne Sladky / AP Helped Ukrainian refugees On Monday, Phuc escorted 236 Ukrainian refugees by plane from Poland to Canada, according to the news agency AP. The refugees were flown to Regina, the capital of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. On board the plane was Phuc, along with her husband Bui Huy Toan. The 59-year-old, who is now a Canadian citizen, wants her story and work for refugees to be a message of peace. Phan Thị Kim Phuc helped Ukrainian refugees travel from Poland to Canada. Photo: Michal Dyjuk / AP In 2019, the woman received the German Dresden Prize for her peace work. For a long time, Phuc tried to escape his attachment to the image. The organization praises her for turning the situation around, and rather using the experience to work for peace, according to Sky News. “She became an ambassador for UNESCO, founded an organization for children who have been wounded and maimed in war, and speaks to thousands of people every year,” the organization said in a statement.
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Fifty years later, the “Napalm girl” has finished treatment for burns – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
