Saturday, October 07, 2006

Refugee

This week, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) set up a refugee camp in Centennial Park. Physicians and other medical personnel who have personally served in varieties of refugee situations around the world each take a group of 20 visitors on a 45 minute tour of the camp as if the visitors were refugees themselves. Each exhibit demonstrates how the basic needs of the refugees are met. Where will I live? Find water? Go to the bathroom? Find food? What if I am malnourished or sick? And so forth. For your very own tour, go to doctorswithoutborders.org and double click on the Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City photo. There is a large, varied and growing population refugees living in Nashville.

10 comments:

Annie said...

That is brilliant - and likely encourages Nashvillians to support Doctor's without Borders.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Jenny said...

Thanks for letting us know about this - what a great idea!

jenni said...

what a wonderful way to share this information! thank you!

Jean said...

I know Vancouver doctors support this program but don't believe we have ever had such an exhibition.
A very worthy cause.

Sally said...

Great idea. We make a standign monthly donation to Medecins Sans Frontiers and would love to see somethign like this.

Kim said...

Thanks for bringing more attention to Doctors Without Borders in this natural context. Howdy in Music City!
-Kim

Denton said...

A wonderful effort and Nashville's involvement should be applauded.

Eric said...

It's actually an excellent idea. How come there are more and more refugees in Nashville?

Suzanne McDermott said...

There are more and more refugees in Nashville for the same reason that there are more and more refugees in other particular cities. People are displaced by war, flee and find their ways to locations where there are family members or other people from their place of origin, and where they will be accepted and find services to meet their needs. I've met one of the lost boys of Sudan at a shoe store. There must be some church or other groups who help the refugees to find their way here. In addition to refugees, Nashville has a large and ever growing Hispanic population. I also read in the paper the other day that some other US cities are giving their homeless people one-way tickets to Nashville. A popular spot, indeed.