A Georgian youth waives his nation's flag in the formerly Russian occupied city of Gori to mark the first anniversary of the 2008 Russo-Georgian. An estimated 30,000 people were permanently forced from their homes by the 2008 war in addition to another 250,000 displaced in the 1990s over the secessionist conflicts in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Residents of the Mokhisi IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) settlement haul drinking water back to their cottage from a spring two kilometers away because of a broken water pump.

Sharia Sikturashvili, 82, who had lived all her life in South Ossetia before the 2008 war with Russia, prepares loaves of bread in the cottage she shares with her son and his family in the Mokhisi IDP settlement.

Laminate flooring, electric heaters, and indoor plumbing set the cottages of the Tserovani  IDP settlement apart from many others in Georgia. The closest settlement to the capital, Tserovani is often the first stop for visiting dignitaries and foreign aid agencies.

While Georgians displaced in 2008 have been housed in cottage style settlements dotted throughout the country, many of the estimated 250,000 displaced in the 1990s have been squatting in abandoned buildings or housed in so-called collective centers.

Jamal Babsdidze shares his account of the 2008 conflict in South Ossetia. Like many IDPs, he has become accustomed to such border tensions, which have twice forced him from his home near Tskhinvali.

Nugzari Sikturashvili, now living in the Mokhisi IDP settlement, holds a bullet that struck his car while he was evacuating his family from South Ossetia during the August 2008 war. Nugzari had once arranged sporting events to help unify his multiethnic village near Tskhinvali.

Spring rainstorms flooded much of the Mokhisi IDP settlement in April 2010.

The exterior walls of Matsiko Gogidze's cottage had already begun to crack when she moved into the Tserovani IDP settlement in November 2008. Many concerns have been raised about the quality of construction that was rushed to completion before the winter following the war.

Private mini-bus services, or marshrutkas, provide the only transportation between IDP settlements and the capital of Tbilisi for those residents without their own cars. 

An impromptu picnic atop the mountains near Gudauri, Georgia within site of the disputed border with South Ossetia.

Two-year-old Nikusha watches his grandfather, Ciala Gogagitishvili, chop firewood for the families stove. The eleven member Gogagitishvili family has lived on the first floor of an abandoned dormitory building in Tbilisi since their displacement from Abkhazia in the early 1990s civil war.

Sharia Mzisadari explains how the contractors continue to delay the remodeling project while she and her family live in a nearby tent. The Ingiri IDP Collective Center used to house forty-one people until it was closed down by a local NGO funded remodeling project.

Tea Rtveliashvili with her son, Nikusha, in the main living space of the shelter they share with her husband's family. Nikusha was born with a malformed leg, which was operated on with money by a French donor.

Mamuka Khaduri tries his best to repair and sharpen a scythe blade. "It was a waste of money," says Mamuka of the equipment provided by the Georgian government. "If they were to give this money to us we would buy it on our own. Everything broke as soon as we touched it."

The mountainous border between Georgia and Russia is rendered nearly impassible by an early spring snow.