I had seen children killed, injured and terrified, but never had I seen a child smiling or laughing in Lebanon while I was covering the war between Hizbullah and Israel in July last year.
So this image, taken 14 months later, of an Irish soldier, Joe Gleeson, playing and talking with Bedouin children near Camp Ida, in southern Lebanon, illustrates the resilience and strength of people living in post-war countries and the vital role of UN peacekeepers.
I have travelled back to Lebanon to photograph the effect the war has had on its people, revisiting the bombed southern suburbs of Beirut and towns near the Israeli border that were devastated by Israeli bombing raids. I spend two days with the Irish soldiers, touring some of the area of their operation and attending the standing-down parade of Finnish and Irish engineering battalions, ending their most recent 12-month mission. Irish troops returned to Lebanon on October 31st, 2006, following the war, to rebuild communities and clear mines in the Al Khiyam and Ibil as Saqy areas of southern Lebanon.