Right now, decide which of your belongings you’ll take with you as you flee your country. You have only a few minutes to decide what’s important, and what you can carry during the long journey ahead.
That’s what visitors to Forced From Home will be confronted with when they start their tour of the traveling exhibition mounted in Schenley Plaza in Oakland.
They will also see a small boat a family might be forced to use to cross the Mediterranean Sea, the barbed-wire fence that might confront them at various borders, and tents they might live in at a refugee camp.
The traveling exhibit by aid organization Doctors Without Borders opens here today following stops in Washington, D.C., New York and Boston.
The exhibit focuses on five regions: Afghanistan, South Sudan, Syria, Burundi and Honduras. Visitors will randomly be assigned the identity of a refugee from one of these places, which will help determine their journey through the exhibit. The exhibition aims to teach about war, ethnic tensions, or other reasons that can drive people from their homes. It also aims to simulate the refugee experience for visitors, via the hourlong tour, as well as through virtual reality documentaries visitors can watch. The guides are aid workers from Doctors Without Borders.
“Refugees are no different from us,” said Sarah Khenati, one of the tour guides for the exhibit. “We could be them, they could be us. They used to have a home, they used to have a job, they used to go to school, they used to have our life. It’s not a choice to be a refugee.”
Jason Cone, executive director of Doctors Without Borders in the United States, noted that Pittsburgh has been welcoming of refugees.
“We thought it was an important place to bring this conversation,” he said.
Many refugees locally have come from Bhutan, Burma, Syria, Iraq, Democratic Republic of the Congo or Somalia, said Kheir Mugwaneza, program director at the Northern Area Multi Service Center. More than 600 refugees this year have settled in Allegheny County, he said.
When people arrive here, having fled war or persecution, they face challenges with adjusting to a new way of life, learning a new language and accessing the services they need, Mr. Mugwaneza said.
According to the state’s refugee resettlement program, Allegheny County has had 4,883 direct refugee placements from 36 distinct countries between 2001 and 2015, with the largest number coming from Bhutan.
Refugees in Pittsburgh must quickly find work and become economically self-sufficient, despite the challenges of past trauma from leaving their home and sometimes limited English proficiency, said Leslie Aizenman, director of refugee and immigrant service at Jewish Family & Children's Service of Pittsburgh.
“These people are going through a huge challenge when they first get here, but they come through. It's very positive for our city,” said Ms. Aizenman. “They are working. Their kids are in school, they start to build their future. It also is a reminder of our own immigrant past.”
“Refugees who are coming here, they are not different from our own families ... They want their children to succeed, they want their children to go to school. They want to go to bed and feel safe and feel like nothing bad is going to happen. With the current political climate, I think it's important to remember that,” Mr. Mugwaneza said.
Forced From Home opens today at Schenley Plaza in Oakland and runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Monday. The exhibition is free.
Kate Giammarise: kgiammarise@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3909 or on Twitter @KateGiammarise.
First Published: October 27, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
