Millions of the world's refugees are children.
Joyce Ihuju's parents were killed fleeing Sudan when she was four. She is now 14, and lives in a refugee camp in Uganda.
Along with other young people, she tells her story in a book published by NGO International Rescue Committee (IRC) to coincide with Britain's Refugee Week -- June 14 to 20.
In "Making It Home", children aged six to 15 describe their experiences of war in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia and Sudan.
The book is available from Puffin.
This is Joyce Ihuju's story:
I come from a small village called Torit.
I am an only child but we had other relatives living with us, and my parents loved me very much.
I miss all of that now.
My father was a driver for one of the local hospitals.
My mother was a farmer and used to spend most of her time in the field looking after the crops.
I can remember how we only stayed in our house during the day.
At night we would hide from the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army in the bush or forests.
When I was four, disaster struck my family when my father and two of our relatives were ambushed and killed.
A few days after my father died, the fighting got worse.
My mother started to worry about us staying in the village because anyone found there could be beaten and killed, so we left Torit.
But as we fled we were ambushed. My mother was grabbed, seriously beaten and killed by the rebels.
I was beaten too, but a woman helped me to escape.
We ran to someone’s house, where I lived for quite a while. I don’t remember exactly how long.
A TEMPORARY FAMILY
But then that home was also attacked by rebels and burned down.
I managed to escape and ran to another household, who took me in on the condition that I did not stay for too long.
I lived with that family for about three months, before finding another family to look after me.
I stayed with them until we fled to Uganda to escape from the fighting.
There we were taken in by the Acholi-pii Refugee Camp.
But when the camp was attacked by the Lord's Resistance Army we had to move here to Kiryandongo Refugee Camp.
My early memories of this camp are happy. For the first time I felt peace of mind and regained my hope for the future.
But then my foster family grew tired of me and asked me to leave.
So I had to manage on my own until another Good Samaritan family offered to look after me.
Although I have a new family now, my life has not changed much.
I feel lonely and afraid of doing anything that might annoy my new "parents".
I live with six other orphans and I’m not sure of my next destination or what will happen to me tomorrow.
I spend all my time doing lots of housework and gardening and I have no time for playing.
By the end of the day my body is aching and I am exhausted.
'TIME TO FIND ANOTHER PLACE'
During the last six months my foster father has started to be sarcastic to me, which makes me feel like it’s time to find another place to stay where I can be free like other children.
Whenever I’m asked about my family life and background, I burst into tears before saying anything.
I find it very painful, remembering how my parents were killed in cold blood, and the only way to release the pain is to cry.
My greatest wish is to find my relatives and get resettled.
