Internally displaced children in South Sudan

Caritas Austria offered me 2015 the chance of travelling to South Sudan to produce a photoreportage about the situation in the refugee camps. South Sudan is one of the most dangerous countries on Earth. Every year the bloody civil war drives increasing numbers of people from their villages and into an uncertain and hazardous future. The situation in the refugee camps is still catastrophic in many places. Countless children are suffering from chronic malnutrition and many of them die because there is no medical treatment. Whether children and young people from the refugee camps get a chance to live in decent conditions in future depends entirely on international aid. The fact that help is being provided here by international aid organisations is encouraging. What gave me most hope, however, were my encounters with children themselves. I was surprised to discover that in spite of their dramatic living conditions, in spite of traumatic experiences and unimaginable hardships endured during their flight, they radiated an enormous will to live and friendliness. Children have this incredible ability to face life with joy in spite of what they have suffered. And that is cause for hope, because the future of this generation does not seem to have been lost. If they have access to clean water and sufficient food, and if they can go to school, then these children and young people will summon up their own energy to create decent lives for themselves. In my photos I introduce people who are directly affected by the humanitarian catastrophe in South Sudan. They are all remarkable personalities and now they urgently need help in order to survive and to have a chance of a decent future.