PHOTOS: Despite War And Violence, Kids Still Find ‘Moments Of Playfulness’

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Children climb a tree on the grounds of a school in La Rivera Hernandez, a neighborhood in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, that is notorious for high levels of violence in a city that has some of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Danielle Villasana

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Danielle Villasana

Halima Ibrahim, 30, with her daughter. After her village was attacked, Ibrahim was forced to live under Boko Haram rule for nine months in Monguno, Nigeria, where insurgents would threaten to kill people in front of them as intimidation. After the military rescued people in captivity, she reunited with her husband in Maiduguri, where she lives in a refugee camp with him and their children.

Danielle Villasana

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Danielle Villasana

Zara, 19, was forced to live in Nigeria’s Sambisa Forest, Boko Haram’s headquarters, after her husband joined the insurgents when their daughter was only two months old. This portrait was taken at a safe house in Maiduguri, where women who have suffered sexual assault, forced marriage or other abuses at the hands of the insurgents are provided support.

Danielle Villasana

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Danielle Villasana

Amina, who has suffered forced marriage and captivity at the hands of Boko Haram from the age of 13, now lives in a safe house in northeastern Nigeria where she says there’s peace and security. For her future, she hopes to go to school and to get married one day.

Danielle Villasana

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Danielle Villasana

Students jump rope during recess at a school for orphaned children in Maiduguri, Nigeria, where many have a parent who was killed by Boko Haram.

Danielle Villasana

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Danielle Villasana

Rohingya women and children walk through a refugee camp outside of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where nearly one million people have taken refuge, many with visible wounds and scars from human rights abuses committed against them in Myanmar.

Danielle Villasana

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Danielle Villasana

A young girl walks along the streets of a neighborhood in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, which has some of the highest homicide rates in the world due to violence from gangs and police.

Danielle Villasana

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Danielle Villasana