RYVU PHOTO EXHIBIT IN NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, UK
The RYVU team was pleased to host the photo exhibit “Volunteering, Displacement & Livelihoods: Photographs by Young Refugees in Uganda” at Northumbria University’s Gallery North, in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Between 20th June and 29th July 2022, the exhibit was visited by nearly 500 people, including community members, university students and staff, and NGO stakeholders from refugee organisations in the Newcastle.
Following the successful photo exhibit activities in Uganda earlier this year, the UK public also had a chance to see photos taken by young refugees about their volunteering experiences in Uganda, as well as play with interactive games developed as part of the project’s dissemination activities. If you haven’t had a chance to visit the exhibit in person, you can have a virtual visit to the gallery here.
The photos taken by young refugees themselves highlight their agency, creativity and capacities to build lives and livelihoods and the care and support they contribute to their own and host communities’ development. But it also shows that the hopeful and positive image of volunteering should not be a smokescreen for the inequalities and exploitation young refugees experience, and how volunteering can sometimes exacerbate these inequalities.
The photo exhibit opened at Gallery North on the 20th of June to mark the World Refugee Day, and it was also part of the UK Refugee Week calendar of events. On that day, Dr Sarah Mills presented the exhibit to a group of visitors, highlighting key project findings around the exhibit’s four themes: Livelihoods & Word; Participation, Skills & Employability; Friendships & Connections; and Refugee Community Development.
The exhibit was then officially launched on the 6th of July by Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods, Chair of the Board of Governors at Northumbria University, and Professor Matt Baillie Smith, Principal Investigator of the RYVU project. In the occasion, Dr Blackman-Woods and Professor Baillie Smith highlighted Northumbria’s growing global role in leading and pioneering innovative and impactful research on volunteering, and the impact volunteering has on people’s lives.
During the exhibit period at the Gallery, various activities were organised to bring together students, researchers and representatives from volunteer-involving and refugee organisations in the Northeast of the UK.
The RYVU photo exhibit was staged with the support from the Newcastle-based design company Roots and Wings, a key partner in the design and production of RYVU project materials.
