The streets of Nouakchott are dusty even in the cool of an Eid morning. We're setting up for the clothing distribution outside a school, and the narrow lane is already filling up — children's laughter bouncing off iron gates before we've even opened the boxes. Torn sandals, bare feet. None of it touching the look in their eyes.

That's when I notice her. A girl in a yellow dress, hair braided in fine, thin rows, a smile cutting straight through the dust on her face. Gülsüm, 11 years old. She holds up her new floral dress and pink shoes, turns toward someone in the crowd — her mother, I think — and shouts: "Look, I'm going to be a princess at Eid!"

The whole street laughs with her.

Mauritania, 2025