Review: Volunteering, Displacement and Livelihoods exhibition
By Sophie Milnes, Geography and Environment, Loughborough University
As part of National Refugee Week, an exhibition from the Refugee Youth Volunteering Uganda (RYVU) project, has been running at Loughborough University’s Martin Hall Exhibition Space in collaboration with LU Arts to showcase original photographs taken by young refugees living and volunteering in Uganda.
The exhibition reveals, from the original perspective of young refugees, authentic 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 aged under 25. Core research themes of Livelihoods, Skills, Community Development and Friendships are told through photography to piece together the role that volunteering plays in refugee communities. Insights from this research project told through infographics and display texts challenge understandings of what it means to be a volunteer.
On World Refugee Day (Tuesday 20 June), a public talk from Professor Sarah Mills (School of Social Sciences and Humanities) with RYVU collaborators Professor Matt Baillie Smith and Dr Bianca Fadel (Northumbria University) gave life to these images, detailing the research context of four key refugee communities in Uganda. The range and creativity of methods used in the research project was inspiring for visitors, who were then given the opportunity to tour the exhibition space and invited to play a variety of interactive board games.
As visitors engage with the photographic work, a composition of authentic audio soundtrack recorded from a refugee settlement creates a particularly immersive viewing experience. Three board games designed by the international research team provided visitors with opportunities to actively discuss and reflect on the lives of young refugees. The ‘Volunteering Journey’ board game in particular raises awareness of some of the barriers to participation 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 I think about what volunteering is”.
If you missed the exhibition you can find out more about RYVU on the official research project website where you can explore a virtual exhibition gallery as well as key findings and resources.
