Belqees always dreamt of going to school. “My friends would come back to the village and talk about school, what they had been doing,” the 16-year old says. “I felt like, they are my friends, why am I behind?” At her home, in a remote village in Daykundi, a province in Afghanistan’s central highlands, Belqees explains how she… Read more →←
Author: Toby Fricker
“I was a little girl when I came from Syria, I was 11 years old and just thinking about toys; now I have grown up,” says Omaima, as the 16 year old reflects on her time in Za’atari, nearly one third of her life. “I used to think that when I got to the camp it would be like a picnic, like a garden to play with my friends. Then I… Read more →←
“I have three kids whom I have to put on their feet; I want them to live happily and to prosper in their future,” Andrii, 35, tells me. It’s a goal that most parents share, but for Andrii one that became a lot tougher when Ukraine’s conflict escalated in mid-2014. “Our children were frightened a lot; they kept hiding under the… Read more →←
“My cats eyes were so wide, he was also very afraid,” Diana tells us matter of factly. The 10-year-old is explaining what happened during a recent day of intense shelling in Avdiivka, her hometown on the frontline of east Ukraine’s more than three-year-old conflict. This is where you hear first-hand the violence that continues… Read more →←
“I will return to my home, love will return,” Ansam’s melodic voice reverberates around a packed Damascus opera house. The audience is transfixed by the 10-year-old’s singing and the harmony of the forty-strong children’s choir who accompany her. Born blind, Ansam lives in Syria’s capital after being displaced by fighting… Read more →←
The soldiers at the fifth military checkpoint of the morning wave us on. We finally enter Hranitne. The village lies sandwiched between the Ukrainian military on one side and armed groups of the Donetsk de-facto authorities, across a small bridge. This is the frontline of Ukraine’s eastern conflict and it’s 16-year-old Dasha’s… Read more →←
