Two men try to repair the electrical system in an Erbil school where Christian refugees have taken shelter.

Every refugee has to register their documents and declare the number of family members with them in order to access the school. Aside from keeping track of family members, this also helps authorities estimate how many people reside in the school at a given moment.

Children staying in the school play and help to arrange benches and chairs to make room for their belongings.

Erbil, Region of Kurdistan, Iraq. A common example of what the refugees were able to move from their homes before fleeing.

A line forms outside the school where refugees are waiting to register with local authorities. Without registering, refugees are not allowed to take shelter there.

High temperatures of up to fifty degrees make life difficult for these refugees. Volunteers bring blocks of ice to cool the water.

While men are queuing up for registration, women begin to bring their belongings into the school and to make space on the ground for blankets.

Local authorities register refugees, but the lines grow longer as more displaced families begin to arrive.

Besides showing their documents to authorities, heads of households are required to give their thumbprint next to their name on the list.

A bus arrives at the youth center. Refugees who fled from Qaraqosh with little time to gather their belongs or decide where to go are often relocated by local authorities. A man waits to be moved to another center.

The UNHCR greets the refugees when they arrive in a school provided by the municipality. They have to record each arrival carefully.

During the first hours of the afternoon, some refugees are moved from a youth center to schools of the district of Ankawa. Classes are out for the summer, so the municipality has made the schools available to refugees fleeing the Islamic State.

A newborn child struggles to sleep after the many hours spent on the road to Erbil.

UNHCR had little time to prepare for a large influx of refugees arriving at first light. They distributed food and aid, but finished their supplies with many people still waiting in the room.

A woman pleads with UNHCR workers after the food and aid they had distributed ran out.

A woman has asked to have more food for their families, but the supplies are not enough for everyone and must be distributed fairly to keep order in the makeshift shelter.

Members of the church of St. Joseph in Ankawa bring food and aid to the youth center to be distributed to families seeking refuge from the onslaught of ISIS in Qaraqosh.

A mother receives aid from Christian volunteers who arrived by truck with food and medicine.

Humanitarian NGOs help place refugee families in the empty spaces of a youth center in Erbil and distribute mattresses and blankets for them.

A refugee woman dons her cross. Prayer is an important part of survival for these refugees, who pray that the situation will improve as soon as possible and they will be able to return to their homes.

The advance of ISIS towards Christian towns in Iraq's north has generated fear and caused families to flee to the capital city of Iraqi Kurdistan, Erbil. Each generation of these families lives this fear differently, and often the older family members care for the emotional wellbeing of the young.

An old woman fled Qaraqosh at night. She tries to find a moment to pray amid the fear and confusion.

Children tried to rest comfortably, spreading blankets on the floor amid the confusion of arriving refugees and local volunteers trying to organize their aid packages.

Faith and hope kept families together in difficult moments. A man has a cross tattooed on him at night.

In the first few hours of the morning, trucks with supplies arrive at the youth center in Erbil. Men, women and children help the volunteers deliver aid.

M. was an English teacher in Qaraqosh. She recounts the fear and sadness of being forced to flee her home in the middle of the night.

Once refugees arrived in Erbil, providing them with food and water was the top priority of local volunteers.

After bombings in Qaraqosh, the local government has decided to evacuate the entire town. About 5,000 families have taken refuge in the Kurdish city of Erbil. Schools and sports centers have been made available by local volunteers and aid organizations.