Workshop Simulates Life of Refugees

Author: Chelsea Coffin

Dance, cooking and craft classes may still represent the typical Winter Term workshop, but this January, a new, more serious breed of workshop has been introduced. The Middlebury Refugee Camp Simulation workshop seeks to familiarize a group of students with the issues faced by over 37 million refugees today.
The United Nations (U.N.) considers any individual displaced due to violent conflict or political social or religious oppression, a refugee.
Brian Hoyer '03.5 organized this workshop to share his life-changing experiences working for a refugee resettlement agency in Colorado and for a Sudanese refugee camp in Uganda, where he spent his semester abroad.
"Experiencing refugee situations first hand, I was motivated to give the Middlebury community the chance to experience the life of a refugee in order to increase awareness and bring the issues of refugees closer to Vermont," Hoyer said.
On Tuesday nights, the 12 students taking part in the workshop form the core organizational group for a refugee camp simulation in Nelson Arena. The event is planned for the end of the spring semester. Films and readings about refugees supplement the workshop's brainstorming sessions for the simulation. Hoyer is also working to bring a former refugee from Bosnia, Sudan or another country to speak at Middlebury.
The students involved with the simulation are currently discussing preliminary details, such as whether the event should portray a general scenario or a specific situation, such as the Sudanese conflict.
Hoyer said that the Sudanese crisis may prove an important "prototype" for the group to follow. An 18-year civil war in the Sudan has displaced upwards of 4.4 million people. The crisis has poured over into neighboring nations, including Uganda where Hoyer visited refugee camps.
Hoyer says that the conflict in the Sudan is motivated by a complex interaction of previous "ethnic" strife, resource extraction and tensions among religious sects. Once Sudanese victims of the civil war cross the border into nations like Uganda, they are immediately granted refugee status by the U.N.
To make the event as realistic as possible, students in the workshop are looking at avenues to convey the intricacies and challenges present in refugee camps.
A fundamental component of the simulation will be recreating the problem of food distribution. According to Hoyer, food in African refugee camps is provided by international food aid programs. Food, Hoyer, continued, is a source of power among refugees living in the camps. Refugees are typically alloted a certain amount of food each month. As such, trading and bartering for food become frequent activities and struggles sometimes ensue.
The students involved in the simulation must also incorporate the distribution of medical supplies. The Red Cross is primarily involved with medical assistance to camps in Africa.
The group hopes, too, that Middlebury's simulation can be modeled after other successful simulation projects.
One possible model for the refugee camp simulation this spring is a role-play plan. Medicin Sans Frontieres (MSF), an international organization whose name means "Medicine without Borders." A group of French doctors started the organization to provide support for populations in danger around the world.
At an MSF simulation, each participant takes a spin at the "wheel of misfortune" and receives a refugee situation.
The participant then walks through a model clinic where food is distributed, medical issues are resolved and shelter is discussed.
Such a process intrigues Hoyer, who affirmed that a fundamental goal for the group is to have participants live through the entirety of the experience as a refugee.
Hoyer is excited about his workshop team for the spring simulation and their diverse academic interests, which range from international studies to anthropology to medicine.
Further commenting on the worshop's objectives, Hoyer stated "the goal of the simulation is to provide an experience that will transform thinking and inspire action at Middlebury."