The Shamshatoo Refugee Camp

An Afghan vendor and two children hurry along a dirt road in the Shamshatoo refugee camp. Thousands of Afghans live in mud buildings made from red clay mined nearby.  (DON BARTLETTI / Los Angeles Times)

Jamshad Bari pours a ration of cooking oil for an Afghan woman. Hundreds are waiting for the weekly distribution of oil, wheat and corn from the U.N. World Food Program. Since opening two years ago, 53,000 Afghans have filled the Shamshatoo refugee camp.  (DON BARTLETTI / Los Angeles Times)

At the U. N. World Food Program depot in Peshawar, 100-lb bags of American wheat grain are moved by hand onto cargo trucks. It is hoped that 60 trucks will convoy on Wednesday, October 17, through the nearby Khyber Pass and across the border to Kabul, Afghanistan. The grain is targeted for distribution to impoverished Afghan villagers in the Central Highlands.  (DON BARTLETTI / Los Angeles Times)

A family of carpet makers from Afghanistan work in their tent in the Shamshatoo refugee camp.  (DON BARTLETTI / Los Angeles Times)

Abdur Raqeeb, 16, hammers flat an old oil can in the Shamshatoo refugee camp. His family makes tin boxes from the scrap metal. A bag of wheat from a United States aid program sits in the tiny hut.  (DON BARTLETTI / Los Angeles Times)

Tents provided by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees sit among mud buildings in the Shamshatoo refugee camp near Peshawar.  (DON BARTLETTI / Los Angeles Times)

At the U. N. World Food Program depot in Peshawar, Mohammed Tahir moves a sack of American wheat grain from a huge stockpile to a nearby truck. Thousands of 100-pound bags were loaded by hand onto a 60-truck convoy destined for a warehouse in Kabul.  (DON BARTLETTI / Los Angeles Times)

At the U. N. World Food Program depot in Peshawar, Pakistan, truck driver Gulman Khan, 16, looks out from the ornate cab of his customized cargo truck. On Oct. 17 he joined a 60-truck convoy to Kabul, Afghanistan to deliver thousands of sacks of American wheat to a warehouse.  (DON BARTLETTI / Los Angeles Times)

Shirshad, 9, wears the results of a skin disease he contracted in the Shamshatoo refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan. Purple stains are from medicinal salve.  (DON BARTLETTI / Los Angeles Times)