|
|
10/07/2002
Refugee camp survey in Tanzania
During the month of June, volunteers from Design
for the World have visited refugee camps in Tanzania to get
first-hand information about the conditions in which refugees
live, and to identify areas where design can help improve
those conditions. One of their first observations is that
refugees do not always live in tents...
Local
workshop | Ase
Kari Haugeto, an industrial designer from Norway, and Luca
Gazzaniga, a Swiss architect, went to Tanzania accompanied by
Carlo Ruggeri from Design for the World. For many years now,
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has
been taking care of refugees in the western part of Tanzania,
bordering on Rwanda and Burundi.
The objective was to
get first-hand knowledge of the living conditions of the
refugees, so as to identify where and how design can intervene
to make a significant contribution to the humanitarian efforts
going on.
One of the first thing the designers noted
was that, contrary to what some people believe, refugees do
not always live in tents. In fact, tents are only distributed
as a first, temporary solution, and in situations where the
logistical and financial conditions permit to buy and
transport enough tents. Often, like here in Tanzania, refugees
have to build their own huts with local materials, sometimes
complemented with some plastic sheeting. When there are big
refugee influxes, the demand for wood to construct shelters
combined with the demand for firewood can quickly exhaust the
local resources, leading to deforestation.
The team
concentrated on the daily living conditions of the refugees:
how do they organise their living space, what kind of utensils
do they have for cooking, how do they transport and store
water,... They are preparing a report with their findings,
which will be made available through this website.
|
| |
