2000 Photo Contest, Sports, 2nd prize
Photographer

Tim Hetherington

Panos Pictures

01 May, 1999

An under 13 football competition in downtown Monrovia sees a large crowd gather to watch. Football provides some relief, focus and stability to children traumatized by the civil war in Liberia. The war lasted seven years, leaving a broken economy and continued skirmishes in the north of the country. Thousands of children fought in the war. Teams like the Millennium Stars, made up of former child-combatants, help children to develop an alternative sense of pride, in sports skill rather than in violence.

About the photographer

Tim Hetherington

Tim Hetherington (Liverpool, UK, 1970 - Misrata, Libya, 2011) studied literature at Oxford University and after traveling independently in China, India and Pakistan, initially wo...

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