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Make-believe conquers the tools of war as children clamber over an abandoned anti-aircraft gun in Beirut, Lebanon, 1982.
These tools of war became an improvised playground demonstrating the resilience of children. No matter how dire the situation, how dangerous the environment, children need to play. Whether it is splashing in puddles or climbing on abandoned tanks, their world of make believe is almost as important as food and shelter.
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A young Afghan school girl returns to her hometown of Herat after being born and raised as a refugee in neighboring Iran. This was the first week in her new school. Afghanistan, 1992.
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Cambodian refugee. Thailand, 1980.
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Cambodian refugee. Thailand, 1980.
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A refugee girl and her father near Feyzabad. Their family was returning to their village after 12 years of living in a refugee camp. Afghanistan, 1990.
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Afghan War Refugees return to their war-torn neighborhood, which was ravaged by twelve years of war. Herat, Afghanistan, 1992.
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This young girl in Kabul takes delight in wearing a party dress. She gathers up the material as if she was on the way to a ball. The idea of childhood as a protective enclave of innocence is a luxury few Afghan children can afford. Afghanistan, 2002.
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Cambodian refugee at the Khao-I-Dang Refugee Camp, in Thailand, 1980. In 1979, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and overthrew the Khmer Rouge. Vietnam and the Cambodian government it created ruled the country for the next 12 years. The Khmer Rouge and other groups fought a guerrilla war against the Vietnamese occupiers and the Cambodian government.
In 1979 and 1980, the chaos caused hundreds of thousands of Cambodians to rush to the Thailand border to escape the violence and famine that threatened Cambodia. Humanitarian organizations coped with the crisis in one of the largest humanitarian aid efforts ever undertaken.
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Returning war refugees sheltering in this destroyed building in Kabul. Afghanistan, 2002.
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A young village boy from Nuristan, or "The Land of Light," in Northern Afghanistan. The region gained its name after being conquered by the kings of Afghanistan who then converted the area to Islam in the 19th Century. Afghanistan, 1992.
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A young man returns to his hometown of Herat, in Western Afghanistan, after living in Iran for sixteen years. Afghanistan, 1991.
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Young nomad girl from Ghazni. In both military and economic terms Ghazni occupies a key strategic position at the heart of the country and was much fought over during the 1990s. Afghanistan, 1990.
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Woman and her children sitting around a pit at a refugee camp. Afghanistan / Pakistan Border, 1982.
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Father and son in a refugee camp in Pakistan's Chitral Valley. Afghanistan / Pakistan Border, 1985.
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Randomly placed tents characterize temporary quarters for new arrivals at Mohammed Khoja near Thai, with 22,000 inhabitants one of the largest camps in Pakistan. Parachinar. Afghanistan / Pakistan border, 1984.
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An Afghan nurse tends an old man in a Red Crescent clinic at the Kachaghari refugee camp. Afghanistan / Pakistan Border, 1984.
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Aerial view of an Afghan refugee camp. Afghanistan / Pakistan Border, 1992.
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Father and daughter in a refugee camp. Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, 1999.
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About 1.4 million Syrian refugees have found a safe haven in Jordan. Steve McCurry has visited the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan twice. It is the largest camp for Syrians in Jordan with about 80,000 inhabitants. These children have never known anything but life in a refugee camp. More than half of the camp's inhabitants are under the age of 24. 2014.
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About 1.4 million Syrian refugees have found a safe haven in Jordan. Steve McCurry has visited the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan twice. It is the largest camp for Syrians in Jordan with about 80,000 inhabitants. These children have never known anything but life in a refugee camp. More than half of the camp's inhabitants are under the age of 24. 2014.
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About 1.4 million Syrian refugees have found a safe haven in Jordan. Steve McCurry has visited the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan twice. It is the largest camp for Syrians in Jordan with about 80,000 inhabitants. These children have never known anything but life in a refugee camp. More than half of the camp's inhabitants are under the age of 24. 2019.
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This young ten-year old Afghan refugee girl living in Peshawar, Pakistan, had never seen her homeland of Afghanistan when Steve McCurry took this portrait. 2002.
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Shabuz, age 68, an Afghan refugee in Pakistan. 1981.
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These girls in school in Peshawar, Pakistan, are Afghan refugees. Their teacher is also a refugee who studied at Kabul University. 1984.
