Gabriel, 14, lives in Malakal, a town in southern Sudan.

Sudan is a large country in East Africa. Civil war (where people from the same country fight each other) has torn the country apart and millions of people, including Gabriel, have had to leave their homes. But recently the fighting in Malakal stopped and Gabriel was able to return.

‘I started at Malakal ECS school this year. Before that I was in Kenya. I went there in 2000. At first I lived in a refugee camp. Kenya was difficult. There were thieves there and they attacked people with guns. Here there are no bandits.

In 2006, people in Kenya told me to leave. "Why do you say you are a refugee? There is peace in your country now so you cannot stay here," they said. "Go back!" I was worried about coming home. I thought there would be no school here to study at, but I was also excited to come back to Malakal – to come back to my family home.

'Before, you could hear the sound of guns in this town. People were fighting each other all the time. People were robbed and murdered. There was no peace.'

Now there is peace in Malakal, but, 'To keep peace is not easy,' says Gabriel. 'We only found peace when we started to listen to each other.’

A Christian Aid partner in Malakal put together an art exhibition in 2007 to help bring people together after the war.

Using mud, the children made small models of things that they felt summed up their lives in Malakal. Most of the models were of cows, tanks or boats.