An innovative new exhibition opening today at the Imperial War Museum North will take decision making as its focus, using individual experiences to tell a global story.
Aid Workers: Ethics Under Fire (2 October 2020 – 31 May 2021),forms part of IWM’s Refugees season and will highlighting the practical, emotional and ethical challenges faced by aid workers on the front lines of conflict.
This is a very interactive show, putting you in the position of aid workers across the world who have to make difficult decisions every day while operating in areas including Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen
Highlighting some of the Dilemmas that they face, the question is what would you faced with the variables .
In on scenario you have to decide what to do about allegations of sexual assaults in a refugee camp -who should you do, stay silent make a formal press statement or pass information to others.
Being an aid worker is dangerous, attacks are increasing over 200 in 2018 and while Aid work should be protected under international law but recent violations have gone unpunished .
The risks are laid out here -the tee shirt being worn by nurse Lajos Zoltan Jeva when MSF’s hospital in Kabul was hit by military air strikes that left 43 dead in 2015.
There are other questions that are aked-Is help bring given for the right reasons and what motives are behind the offers of assistance ,whose money should you accept and what restrictions should be placed on it?
I suppose our battles with Covid and the restrictions we have in place fall into insignificance when you see some of the hazards which these people have to face every day.
Nevertheless this exhibition is laid out with all guidelines in place, plenty of space strategically placed sanitiser and if you don’t want to touch the interactive screens to take part in the ethical questions then there is a QR code to download .
Amanda Mason, Senior Curator, Contemporary Conflict at IWM, says:
“By presenting the experiences of aid workers, many of whom are displaced themselves, alongside digital, scenario-based interactives, this exhibition will give visitors the opportunity to explore the choices they would make if faced with similar circumstances. Highlighting the very real consequences of decision making, we hope that the participatory nature of this exhibition reveals how ethically challenging it is to work with displaced people in conflict zones.”
Aid Workers: Ethics Under Fire
2 October 2020 – 31 May 2021
IWM North
Part of IWM’s free Refugees season
#IWMRefugees
