Overview
Displaced is an educational and advocacy project on the massive displacement of civilians in the Darfur conflict region. It is designed for use by anyone concerned about the Darfur conflict who wants to raise awareness about, and encourage action on, the situation. Use the following tools to help you get started:
- Our Activist Guide provides tools and information to create an educational experience about citizens in conflict in a style appropriate and adaptable to his/her audience. The Activist Guide is designed to appeal to a variety of groups - community groups, faith groups, educators, activists, and others - who would like to facilitate a more in-depth learning experience surrounding the conflict in Darfur.
- Our exhibition resources will help you create your own Displaced exhibition in your community. The interactive human rights exhibition on Darfur considers the everyday lives and rights of the 2.6 million Darfuris who are internally displaced persons (IDPs) or refugees. The exhibition is designed to give the general public a basic introduction to the Darfur conflict: It aims to answer questions like the distinction between a refugee and an IDP and why that distinction matters, life as a civilian caught in conflict, and some aspects of living in a displacement camp.
» Why create an Exhibition on Displaced?
Exhibition
There are four broad themes that define Displaced: Conflict in Darfur, Flight and Displacement, Life in a Displacement Camp, and Toward a Solution. Placards, photographs, maps, and handouts form the core content of each theme, and are all available online as part of this action kit.
Amnesty has not attempted to recreate a refugee or IDP camp through the exhibition. But the exhibition can be set in canvas wall tents similar to those used in displacement camps. When Amnesty International USA's Darfur Campaign has staged the Displaced exhibition, it has used such tents.
Whether set up in a classroom, a community hall, a house of worship, or a canvas wall tent, the purpose of the exhibition is to get people to think anew about the human dimension of this conflict - the 2.6 million displaced Darfuri men, women, and children whose have been thrown into chaos and who do not know when they can return home, or if they ever will.
As people walk through the exhibition or work through the Activist Guide, they are encouraged to consider questions IDPs and refugees face:
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The exhibition is drawn from Amnesty International materials and based on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) standard provisions for displaced civilians as well as humanitarian organizations and UN agencies practices on the ground. On-the-ground sources include Medecins sans Frontieres, World Food Programme, International Rescue Committee, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UNICEF, Church World Service, and the UN Population Fund, among others.
One note of caution: While the exhibition does not contain graphic material, some of the photographs may be disturbing to younger children.
Activist Guide
The Activist Guide is intended to support the interactive experience of the exhibition so that individuals geographically removed from the violence in Darfur can better understand what it means to be a citizen caught in conflict. A few of the topics covered in the Activist Guide include:
- The difference between IDPs and refugees and why it matters
- The human rights of access to food, water, healthcare, education, and shelter
- Violence against women and girls in conflict
- The flow of arms into displacement camps
- Darfuris' response to the conflict as depicted through writing, poetry, and art
The guide's activities can easily be used by educators, students, community group leaders, faith group leaders, and so forth. There are also links to more resources. Amnesty encourages students to create after-school groups in which they can use one exercise per weekly session.
Start Using Displaced!
In the Displaced action kit, you'll find everything you need to stage your own exhibition in any size, and through the Activist Guide, to add in information and activities to learn more in-depth about the Darfur conflict. The Resources section is where you should start to gain an overview of the action kit's layout.
