Experience A Refugee Camp At Home, Via MSF

By Kate | Permalink | No Comments | July 28th, 2007 | Trackback

Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) is organizing a refugee camp simulation so those who haven’t had to take shelter at a real one can get some sense of what the experience is like. If you live in Milwaukee, Chicago, Minneapolis, Houston or Dallas, you can visit the exhibit for free.

Visitors are asked to imagine that they are among the millions fleeing violence and/or persecution in countries such as Colombia, Afghanistan, Congo or Sudan, and will be guided by MSF aid workers who deal with topics like safety, food and water, and medical care. The makeshift camps will include actual medical and other equipment used my MSF in the field.

I know personally several people who were once refugees and while it strikes me that there is a risk of a rather voyeuristic element of a refugee camp exhibit, I think MSF’s goal - to make more widely known the situation and conditions facing those fleeing violence – is a useful one.

MSF will be in each city for four to five days, starting in mid-September and ending in late October. Individuals can attend for free and without any reservation, but they ask groups of 20 or more to schedule a visit. Find out more at the MSF site.