The ICRC together with the VII Photo agency has launched a worldwide campaign to raise awareness of today’s most pressing humanitarian challenges. As part of the campaign, which marks the 150th anniversary of the Red Cross, the ICRC sent five photographers from VII to eight conflict-affected countries to examine up-close the suffering caused by war and violence.

An exhibition of the work is being shown in 40 countries. .

 

After 45 years of conflict, hardly anyone in Colombia has been spared by the violence. In 2008, thousands of families in rural areas had to leave their homes and try to rebuild their lives elsewhere, often in city slums. Two thirds of the displaced receiving ICRC help say they have been threatened with death; one of every ten with forced recruitment into an armed group. Half the ICRC beneficiaries are children and adolescents, and recently, the fighting between the armed forces and armed groups has particularly affected indigenous and Afro-descendant communities.