Afghanistan

We Just Want Peace

I don’t want my children to live in war.

Written by Twila Bird
Photography by Lindsay Silsby
Larif, Afghanistan

I am forty-two years old. We have been at war in Afghanistan for forty-five years! Since I was born and throughout my life I have known conflict and war.

I have been living in the war my whole life.

In Afghanistan, suicide attacks and car bombs were our hidden enemies. We didn’t know where they would be. Under a car, on a bike, in the street—they could be anywhere. We couldn’t run from something we couldn’t see. We lost friends. They would lose a hand or a leg or be killed. We lost our families. It could happen any time—we couldn’t know when. This is the worst kind of war.

I don’t want my children to live in war. We just want to be safe. We just want peace.

Larif Family
I don't want my children to live in war. I don't want my children to live in war.
Larif’s Daughter
My father is a school teacher, but we have no school in the camp. My sisters, my brother, and I haven't been in school for three years now.
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What would you do if you had to leave everything behind?

By the end of 2025, more than 117.8 million people worldwide had been forcibly displaced by war, persecution, or human rights abuses — and 45 million of them are children.

They arrive in refugee camps and countries seeking safety and carrying little: legal papers, if they're lucky. A backpack. A child's hand in theirs.

What they carry that we can't see is heavier: fractured families, homes they'll never return to, professions they loved, friends and relatives they may never see again.

In a climate where immigrant stories are often ignored or twisted, we believe stories are a form of justice. When someone shares what they survived, they reclaim their voice. When we amplify it through film, photography, and advocacy, the world listens. Hearts soften. Policy begins to shift.

Because when a lawmaker sees a person instead of a statistic, and a neighbor understands instead of fears, rebuilding becomes possible.

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— Kristen Smith Dayley, Executive Director, Their Story is Our Story

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