WORLD REFUGEE DAY 2023: RYVU EXHIBITION AND TALK AT LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY, UK
Blog post written by Sophie Milnes, Loughborough University, UK
For World Refugee Day 2023 (Tuesday 20th June), the RYVU project showcased the project’s exhibition with a public talk at Loughborough University in Leicestershire, England. This year’s international theme was ‘hope away from home’, and RYVU activities on World Refugee Day also contributed to National Refugee Week in the UK, a festival “celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary”.
A talk led by RYVU Co-Investigator Professor Sarah Mills with the participation also of Professor Matt Baillie Smith and Dr Bianca Fadel gave life to the “Volunteering, Displacement & Livelihoods: Photography by Young Refugees in Uganda” exhibition images. The research talk powerfully engaged with World Refugee Day 2023’s theme, “hope away from home”. RYVU researchers highlighted the complexities of volunteering, demonstrating the way in which these refugees have been able to “restart their lives” and “contribute to hosting communities” through volunteering, but also reflect upon the barriers that young people face and how volunteering can sometimes exacerbate the inequalities experienced by them. The range and creativity of methods used on the research project was inspiring for visitors, who were then given the opportunity to tour the exhibition space, play a variety of interactive games and discuss the project activities with the research team members.
The exhibition reveals, from the perspective of young refugees, different types of experiences and attitudes towards volunteering in the global South. Using striking colours and compositions, this gallery exhibit captures the reality of volunteering opportunities, challenges and day-to-day engagement of young refugees in Uganda. Core research themes of Livelihoods, Skills, Community Development and Friendships are told through photography to piece together the roles that volunteering play in refugee communities, and in keeping with World Refugee Day 2023, it also challenges stereotypes about refugees’ daily lives. Insights from this research project told through infographics and display texts challenge understandings of what it means to be a volunteer, particularly in the context of displacement.
As visitors engaged with the photographic work, a composition of authentic audio soundtrack recorded in the Nakivale refugee settlement creates a particularly immersive viewing experience. Three interactive games designed by the research team provided visitors with opportunities to actively discuss and reflect on how volunteering affects the lives of young refugees. The ‘Volunteering Journey’ board game in particular raises awareness of some of the barriers to participation in volunteer activities for these young refugees, whilst also demonstrating the creative opportunities to shape their lives and communities. It was wonderful to see visitors at the exhibition engage with these games and the conversations it provoked. Feedback comments from guests described the exhibition as “thought-provoking” and that it “challenged how [they] think about what volunteering is”. The RYVU exhibition virtual gallery is also available here.
About the author of this blog post: Sophie Milnes is a Doctoral Researcher in Human Geography at Loughborough University, UK. Her research interests focus on young people and educational spaces in a range of contexts. She is currently supporting the Refugee Youth Volunteering Uganda (RYVU) photo exhibit activities at the Martin Hall Exhibition Space at Loughborough University, UK, which is open every weekday from 12-2pm until 4th July 2023 (more information here).
