Interior Design Exhibit To Highlight Refugee Issues
This December, an Interior Design exhibit project will be held highlighting the emotional aspects of refugee issues.
The University of Manitoba Interior Design students are exploring many different aspects of this in their work. Students will be using photographs of refugees taken by Turkish photojournalist Bikem Ekberzade. Ms. Ekberzade hopefully will be speaking at the event.
The students will be accepting donations at the event, and are considering donating the money to The Refugee Project, a project being organized by Bikem Ekberzade, and to the Winnipeg refugee settlement agency ‘Welcome Place’.
Robyn Mossman, a Winnipeg medical student and a co-ordinator for the Winnipeg Refugee Education Network (WREN), thinks being involved in this event is a good way for the organisation to advertise itself to potential volunteers. They have never collaborated with university students on a project before (although a good proportion of members are students).
WREN was formed in the Spring of 2000. It was created by Amnesty International volunteers in Winnipeg who decided there was a need to focus on refugee issues and wanted to raise awareness of this in the community. The group worked on Afghan aid issues in 2002 and held fundraising events and generated funds through the local credit union where people could make private donations. They raised over $15,000 (Canadian) for Afghan refugees.