This article was contributed in support of World Vision. All photographs are credited to Joe Were, One Touch Live under copyright.
June 16, is Day of the African Child, a day when organizations around the world advocate for protection of children in Africa. This year’s theme is Conflict and Crisis in Africa: Protecting all Children’s Rights.
To raise awareness of this annual day, we want to share the story of Nyabol through the lens of our friend, Joe Were of One Touch Live, a collective of Kenyan photographers.
Meet Nyabol. She is 10 years old. She is from South Sudan but lives at the Kakuma Refugee Settlement in northwest Kenya. Photographer, Joe Were, documented her daily life in the refugee camp in this photo series. Kakuma is home to nearly 200,000 refugees, the majority of whom are under 17 years old.
Nyabol hasn’t seen her parents since she was two years old. She doesn’t remember them and doesn’t know if they are still alive.
When fighting started, she and her sibling fled to Kakuma. During their journey, they were beaten, robbed and witnessed many unimaginable horrors. “People were hacking each other and you would even be told to eat human flesh,” she recalls. “There were a lot of dead people. They had cuts all over, on their heads, their hands, their legs, anywhere could be cut.”
Nyabol says the food rations they receive are not always enough and they often go to sleep hungry. Her older sister now looks after her and siblings. When Nyabol finishes school, she hopes to help provide for her family by making enough money for clothes her siblings and a house that they can all live in together.
* Name has been changed to protect her identity.
About the Artist
Joe Were is a photographer with One Touch Live, a collective of artists in Kenya who partner with World Vision’s HungerFree to help ignite a movement to end hunger. Follow Joe on Instagram.
It all starts with you. Go to hungerfree.org to join a movement to ensure all people have the right food for today, enough food for tomorrow, and sustainable food for the future.
The views expressed here are not necessarily those of each of the partners of Global Citizen.