MSF Refugee Camp Exhibit coming to Winnipeg

... Volunteers needed!
CONTEXT



In the fall of 2008, Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) plans to bring the Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City exhibit to Western Canada on a four-city tour. The goal of the exhibit is to raise awareness about the plight of the world’s 42 million refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) uprooted by war and conflict.



The Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City exhibit is an outdoor reconstruction of an actual refugee camp, where experienced MSF staff (doctors, nurses, logisticians) guide visitors through a 40 to 60 minute interactive tour explaining the crucial elements for survival in a refugee or IDP crisis. During the tour, each visitor will learn some of the challenges a refugee or IDP faces in trying to access food, shelter, water and medical care.

The Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City was first launched in France in 1995, and has toured in over 15 countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. In 2007, the exhibit attracted close to 20,000 visitors in the United States during its five-city tour. MSF expects to attract over 15,000 viewers throughout the four-city tour of Western Canada this fall. For more information please visit: www.refugeecamp.org



The exhibit will be open to the public on the following dates:



· Winnipeg - September 11-14, 2008 – The Forks



· Volunteers needed September 10 – 15th inclusive



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ABOUT THE VOLUNTEER POSITIONS:

MSF seeks approximately ten highly motivated On-Site Volunteers per day (including 1 day for camp set-up & breakdown pre & post event) for each stop in its tour of Western Canada. This is a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience with the world's leading independent medical humanitarian organization; to network with MSF field staff and to make a difference in terms of raising awareness regarding the challenges faced by the 42 million refugees and IDPs worldwide. Reporting to the Volunteer Coordinator, the On-Site Volunteers will assist the Volunteer Guides and other event staff with general logistics before, during and after the event in order to ensure that visitors’ needs are suitably accommodated and that the objectives of the event are successfully met.

DUTIES AND REPONSIBILITIES

• Assist with the logistics of setting up and breaking down the event

• Assist in organizing and directing arriving groups in order to establish an orderly queue

• Provide local knowledge and run errands for event staff
• Draw people into the event by handing out event-related materials (ie. postcards)

• Assist in outreach by helping to promote the event in to schools, community-based organizations, businesses and other groups

• Assist with other tasks as required



QUALIFICATIONS/ JOB REQUIREMENTS

• Experience or familiarity with or interest in the work of Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

• Familiarity with the local vicinity; knowledge of available local resources and services

• Excellent interpersonal and oral communication skills, organizational skills
• Ability to lift and carry tables, chairs, equipment, etc.
• Knowledge of and interest in refugee issues and the humanitarian aid sector
• Fluency in English essential, and French an asset.

INFORMATION AND APPLICATION – Winnipeg Event ONLY:

Interested candidates for should submit a (brief) email including dates & times available to Dr. Kim Wiebe at kim_wiebe@yahoo.com

Only electronic applications will be accepted. The deadline for applications is September 5/08. Please note that any time you have to offer will be greatly appreciated – you don’t have to be available for the whole event.



For those who are unable to volunteer, please plan on visiting the exhibit.

Please share this information with others!

Thank you.

From let: Yisa Akinbolaji, Gerald Folkerts, Cornelius Buller and Ray Dirks with samples of art on display.


THE celebration of a life-long commitment planted the seed for an art exhibition highlighting human relationships gone very wrong.
"I invited my friends there and that was a plan of God to go beyond that," explains Nigerian-born painter and mosaic artist Yisa Akinbolaji of how his wedding guests hatched a faith-based, multimedia project on the topic of human trafficking under the banner of Invisible Dignity.

The 50 piece exhibit, Unveiling the Mystery, is the culmination of two years of research and reflection on trafficking, sexual exploitation and other forms of indignity for Invisible Dignity project co-ordinator Cornelius Buller, one of Akinbolaji's wedding guests.

The two-venue exhibit featuring works by Akinbolaji, now of Manitoba, fellow Winnipeggers Ray Dirks and Gerald Folkerts, Jo Cooper of Frontenac, Que. and Steve Prince of Hampton, Va., opens Saturday, Sept. 22 at the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery, and on Monday, Sept. 24 at Booth College Library.

The idea of human trafficking alternately engaged and horrified Buller, 52, who began researching the topic when employed an ethicist for the Salvation Army.

"If this is going on in the world and we don't do something about it, that really says something about what we are about," says Buller, now executive director of Urban Youth Adventures, a joint initiative of Camp Arnes and World Vision based in the city's North End.
"Our own dignity is up in the air, it's questionable, until we address the question (of human trafficking)."

Despite his own extensive research, Buller says statistics on human trafficking in Canada are difficult to nail down. Worldwide, an estimated 27 million people are enslaved for prostitution or forced labour, and in some cases, parents give away or sell their children.

Instead of focusing only on the ugly and depressing side of the issue, the art exhibit features work that illuminates the humanity in every person and celebrates relationships, says Folkerts.

"If we think of the dignity that is inherent to every person, if it's invisible, it's not because its not there but because we're blind to it," explains the painter who will be contributing his series of paintings of faces and feet to the exhibit."

"What we're trying to suggest and do in our art is to bring it to the fore, the inherent dignity that is in us."

That approach intrigued singer/songwriter Steve Bell, one of the performers at a benefit concert connected to the exhibit. After years of touring, he's witnessed too much sadness in the world to pass up on participating in a project that celebrates and promotes the dignity of all people.

"I like the focus on celebration rather than warning," explains Bell. "And I like the fact that it is art based. Art has a way of putting us a little off balance so we can see something in a new way. It's a very powerful medium for opening up new paths to compassionate living."

Hosting the exhibit and some of the educational events of Invisible Dignity was a good fit for the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery, explains curator Ray Dirks. "We try fairly aggressively to be involved with pieces that are more than nice piece of art," he explains.

"I've worked pretty much all my adult life around this theme. We need to get to know each other and see each other in the eyes of God."

Buller collected a diverse and wide group of participants and supporters from across denominational lines for the $30,000 exhibit and related events. That widespread involvement of faith groups and organizations means more points of connection within Winnipeg to each other and the larger issue of human trafficking, he says.

"For whatever reason, it's very easy to not be engaged with our neighbours, to be a community," says Buller. "In a city with so much diversity, we have to be very conscious of building community, of knocking down barriers."