Picture of the week: Syrian Refugees In Lebanon, by Liam Maloney

A million Syrian children have now been forced to flee their homes - like three-year-old Khaled
Big picture: Syrian refugees
Khaled with his 70-year-old grandfather, Abu Said. Photograph: Liam Maloney

This month Syria recorded yet another desperate statistic: UN aid agencies reported its millionth child refugee since the current conflict began. Most of these children are under 11. The UN warns that 10 million Syrians, or half the country's population, will need aid by the end of the year.

Lebanon is currently home to the highest number of Syrian refugees, and around 300,000 of them are children. More than 2,000 children have crossed the border entirely alone, having become separated from their families.

Three-year-old Khaled, and his 70-year-old grandfather, Abu Said, left their home this year after two missiles struck their neighbourhood in quick succession. Taking just a handful of clothes and a few pillows, they boarded a crowded bus to Beirut. Home since then has been an unfurnished apartment in a holiday town outside the city.

With their family intact and a roof over their heads, they are luckier than the many who are living in expanding refugee camps. But it is still a limbo, as they wait out the war. A moderately well-off middle-class family, they won't be able to afford their costly rent for ever.

Photographer Liam Maloney spent a month in Lebanon this summer. As he took this picture, Abu Said began a lamentation for home. "He told me how Syria used to be the pearl of the Middle East," Maloney says. "He was deeply saddened, but showed such dignity in the face of everything he'd lost." His grandson continued to shuffle a stack of dog-eared cards, aware that his young life had changed, but probably not why.