The Drawings

A big thankyou to all the groups which lent us pictures:

Human Rights Watch, Kathleen King Photography, Kitgum Children's Voices for Peace, The Puffin Foundation, The Stanley Foundation, War Child Netherlands.

See below for a selection of some of the drawings which were displayed:

CHECHNYA - The Stanley Foundation

These haunting, hand-drawn images were created in the summer of 2002 in Ingushetia, the neighboring Russian republic of war-torn Chechnya, chronicling the lives of families displaced by the conflict. With the help of UNHCR's Moscow and Nazran offices, dozens of children were asked to use paper and crayons to answer the following questions:

- What have I seen in the war?- How has the war affected my life and my family? What is life like in my tent city/ camp/ settlement or home?

DARFUR - Human Rights Watch

On mission along the border of Chad and Darfur, researchers Dr. Annie Sparrow and Olivier Bercault gave children notebooks and crayons to keep them occupied while they spoke with their parents. Without any instruction or guidance, the children drew scenes from their experiences of the war in Darfur: the attacks by the Janjaweed, the bombings by Sudanese government forces, the shootings, the burning of entire villages, and the flight to Chad. These are some of their drawings:

IRAQ - The Puffin Foundation

Children fom the Al-Assail Primary School in Baghdad were asked to express what they'd seen in the Iraq war in drawings. These drawings were done in June 2003, just a month after the US and British invasion of Iraq:

KOSOVO - Kathleen King and the Presbyterian Disaster Relief agency, University Presbyterian Church (UPC) in Seattle.

These drawings were produced by children living in a refugee camp in Albania. Each day members of a 'Kids Care' team from Seattle set up a drawing room for the children to come and find quiet time for reflection and expression through arts and crafts. These drawings were completed as a result:

SUDAN - War Child Netherlands

These drawings are a selection from an exhibition which was originally displayed in Holland. The theme of the drawings is 'the rights of the child':

UGANDA - Kitgum Children's Voices for Peace

These pictures were drawn by Acholi youngsters living in the Kitgum area of Northern Uganda. Many were former child soldiers who either escaped or were rescued from the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, which abducts children and forces them to fight.  Some of the drawings show adults and children being kidnapped, others aid donations being stolen, and in one, the phenomenon of the 'Night Commuters' is shown: children who leave their homes every night to sleep in more secure shelters - for fear of being kidnapped.

Photos from Liberia by Teun Voeten: