According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees by the end of 2017, 65.6 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide including 25.4 million refugees. This is due to the rising number of persecutions, conflicts, violence, and human rights violations around the globe. UNHCR notes that of the nearly 1 million refugees fleeing from South Sudan, 85% are women and children. Because of the war, men (often boys) are taken to fight or killed when they refuse. The refugees have little hope of ever returning to South Sudan and continue to report fighting between armed groups, violence and sexual assault, worsening food insecurity and lack of basic services as reasons for fleeing. The Ugandans have provided them with land and UNHCR has provided them with shelter and food. Yet, the majority has little more than a mattress on a dirt floor for their entire family. Some less than that. Most have lived in the camps over a year and reluctantly admit, “Uganda is their home now.” With the refuge crisis worsening around the world there seems to be no end in sight. 85%: Women of the South Sudan Refugee Camps hopes to shed light, humanity, and dignity on the worst global crisis of our generation. 

“My second time at the South Sudanese IDP camps in Northern Uganda a woman took my hand and led me into her home. What I saw inside was a piece of her world. A place where friends could go, her children could sleep, and a place where she could escape from the chaos of the refugee settlement. I have always been interested in documenting issues regarding the human condition and these women were no exception. They are stuck in this limbo of life where they have nowhere to go, their men have no work and are prone to drink, and everyday face the threat disease and death. Yet, despite their desolate situation the women of the camps remain as strong as ever. They take pride in their appearance, children, and keep their homes tidy. They are silent but strong and have faced turmoil we can only imagine. When I started this story, I wanted to fully see these women and their homes are an outward expression of who they are.” –Rae Ceretto