A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City

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DOCTORS WITHOUT Borders is touring "A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City," an interactive exhibit that asks the public to imagine they are among the 33,000,000 refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) worldwide who have been forced to flee their homes to seek refuge from war or conflict. Made up of actual materials used by Doctors Without Borders in their work all over the world, the 8,000 square-foot exhibit this month will be in Houston (Oct. 4-7) and Dallas (Oct. 11-14). In September, it visited Milwaukee, Chicago, and Minneapolis.

Experienced aid workers (physicians, nurses, and logisticians) act as exhibit guides, sharing their own experiences as well as explaining the challenges of building shelter, finding food and clean water, and handling waste disposal--all basic elements of survival for refugees and IDPs. In the nutrition tent, visitors learn about the special therapeutic foods used to combat malnutrition. Tours of the health clinic, vaccination tent, and cholera treatment center demonstrate how Doctors Without Borders provides basic health care and responds to epidemics in refugee settings. The exhibit highlights areas such as Iraq, Somalia, Chad, and Thailand, where millions of people currently are displaced by conflict.

"Tens of millions of people throughout the world today are uprooted from their homes, on the run, fleeing violence, living under the most grueling conditions," says Nicolas de Torrente, executive director of Doctors Without Borders-USA. "These vulnerable populations-especially the women and children among them who bear the worst burdens of displacement--shouldn't be forgotten.

"This exhibit tries to give visitors a chance to imagine what it is like to be one of the 33,000,000 people around the world made homeless by conflict and war.... By presenting some of the daily challenges faced by displaced people--how they get clean water, enough food, adequate shelter, and basic medical care, often in a climate of fear and uncertainty about their future, we hope the exhibit will raise public awareness and action."

Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres is an international independent medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters, and exclusion from health care in more than 70 countries and was awarded the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize.

Feeling Like A Refugee

FIRST LAUNCHED IN FRANCE in 1995, "A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City" has appeared in more than a dozen countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America, and continues to tour internationally. Created to give a sense of what it is like to be a refugee or internally displaced person (IDP). the exhibition is designed to accommodate around 1,200 visitors a day. Each visit takes about 40-60 minutes, with a new group entering every 10 minutes. Experienced Doctors Without Borders aid workers act as tour guides. Stops on the tour include:

Shelter Area. Three different types of shelter that refugees and IDPs use in various parts of the world are on display.

Food Distribution. Visitors learn about BP-5 Compact Emergency Food, a high-protein biscuit that aid agencies often distribute in emergency situations until food can be procured. International standards call for each person to receive 2,100 calories per day.

Latrine. Proper waste disposal is critical in preventing the spread of disease in overcrowded settings.

Water Supply. At the water distribution point, visitors discover how aid workers treat, purify, and distribute water. Refugees are given one day's worth of drinking, cooking, and bathing water, approximately five gallons (44 lbs.), which they must carry from the water distribution point to their shelters. By contrast, most people in the U.S. use 100 gallons of water per day.

Health Clinic. Aid workers explain how teams set up primary health care clinics to take care of everyday illnesses or refer patients to a Doctors Without Borders or Ministry of Health hospital nearby to treat more serious conditions.

Cholera Treatment Center. Cholera, which is transmitted through contaminated water or food, can kill its victims within hours. Treated immediately, most individuals can be saved. Visitors enter an area where cholera patients are isolated to prevent the spread of the disease. Here. they view the layout of the center as well as treatment methods and how sterile environments are created.

Vaccination Tent. Preventable diseases such as measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, and polio can spread quickly in a refugee camp, killing millions of children each year. A small medical team, however, can vaccinate thousands of youngsters a day.

Nutrition Tent. Children under age five quickly can become malnourished in an emergency. Visitors learn how aid workers use a special measuring bracelet to identify severely malnourished children and about the ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs) employed to combat starvation. RUTFs allow aid organizations to treat more youngsters than ever before and enable mothers to take care of their offspring at home rather than in a hospital setting.

Stories of People Uprooted by War. On display are the written experiences of refugees and IDPs in Chad, Chechnya. Colombia. Iraq, Sudan, and Thailand. The exhibit also showcases images taken by world-renowned photojournalists, including Jean-Marc Giboux, Tyler Hicks, Sebastiao Salgado, Tom Stoddart, and Sven Torfinn.

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