Stories

Peter Biro is a photographer, reporter and humanitarian worker with three decades of experience in crisis zones — from Cambodia and Kosovo to Sierra Leone, East Timor and Iraq.

In the vast, wind-swept plains of northwestern Kenya, the Kakuma refugee camp and Kalobeyei settlement stretch across the dry Turkana landscape.

In the heart of Kenya’s Dadaab Refugee Camp— one of the world’s largest refugee settlements—15-year-old Ifrah Ahmed Garad is rewriting the story of what it means to be a girl born into displacement.

At just 9 years old, Tumaini lost everything he knew. The war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) tore his world apart, claiming the lives of his parents, relatives and destroying their home, leaving him and his elder brother alone in a country ailing from political instability.

It’s the early afternoon in the Kalobeyei refugee settlement, northern Kenya, and Garang has just finished conducting his daily radio show. With EU funding, Film Aid Kenya runs the station as part of its larger network of refugee community radios.

To combat the disease, the EU and its humanitarian partners train local health workers to identify and treat possible malaria cases, as well as educating communities on how to protect themselves.

Kenya is home to nearly 820,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers, many of whom have fled war-torn countries such as Somalia, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sudan. For them, escaping conflict often means enduring unimaginable hardships and rebuilding lives far from home.

A warm gust of wind kicks up a cloud of sand as children play outside the flimsy makeshift dwellings that make up Dadaab, one of the world’s largest refugee camps.

The carcasses of even the hardiest animals such as camels are bleaching in the blazing sun across the Horn of Africa.

An unrelenting drought is pushing families from their homes in Somalia across the border into Kenya. Arriving at the Dadaab refugee camp, they look weary, and the children are weak and sickly. Many have had difficulty finding food for months.

Mawot Deng Achok’s journey is a remarkable testament to the transformative power of support and care for children with disabilities.