All Smiles

This photo was taken in the Bili camp for Central African Refugees. The camp is located in the Northeastern province of North Ubangi in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The camp is home to around 8,000 people who fled their country when an internal conflict broke out in 2013 - the crisis has resulted in around harf a million Central African refugees in its 5 neighboring countries. While on assignment in the camp for a UN agency to document their humanitarian assistance, I was making a photo of the whole camp using my 24mm Sigma F1.4 when a group of excited kids ran up to me, asking for their photos to be taken. They were really excited and happy, a wonderful sight in an otherwise pretty harsh place. I did not really have time to change lense but I opened the lense wide open and engaged with the kids by getting really close to them. This is one of the shot that came out. This is the biggest and happiest smile I have come across in the DRC.