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| The Refugee Project |
| The Refugee Project is the brainchild of documentary photographer Bikem Ekberzade. Ekberzade started the project in the midts of the Kosovo crisis. Her aim was to try and shed light to the humanitarian crisis in the Balkan triangle of Albania-Kosovo-Macedonia. She travelled to Northern Albania first in 1998 to document the lives of Kosovar Albanians seeking shelter in the region. With the support of national and international staff from UNHCR and a German NGO called HCC (Humanitarian Cargo Carriers) in Albania and the IFRC/ICRC in Macedonia she was able to move around and visit the refugee families in their places of refuge. She continued her work for almost 2 years, until fighting ceased in Kosovo and the border opened leading to a rapid return and resettlement. Azerbaijan was next for the project. The status quo in the region had left the IDPs (Internally Displaced People) stranded in the refugee camps for over 20 years. Living in mud shacks in refugee camps, mostly away from the large cities, these uprooted people were trying to survive where no hope flourished for their repatriation. Despite the fact that their territory was occupied by another country, they were nowhere in the news, noone was coming to their rescue, and the only occasional mention of them were as "burdens" in a struggling country's economy, unwanted, forgotten. Later addition to the project was the Afghan refugees in Pakistan and the Internally Displaced in the Penshir valley of central Afghanistan. Ekberzade's documenting of their lives still continues. In December of 2004 the documentary photographer along with eleven architects set up an installation at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg to raise awareness on refugee protection. In September 2005 Refugees was screened in full for the first time in Turkey and overseas. A short film which Ekberzade made with Neslihan Karaduman by editing still images from The Refugee Project had found its final form with the crisis which Ekberzade had photographed during the early summer months of 2005 along the Chadian border. Refugees from Darfur were trying to take refuge in simple camps in the Sahara. The simple intention to highlight a humanitarian crisis has now turned into an expansive project seeking to document and expose the seriously overlooked nature of the global refugee crisis and forced migration. Ekberzade is still seeking to concentrate on populations running from persecution in their country of origin and seeking shelter in different parts of the globe. The project is based on the people themselves and mainly structured around their stories. The photographer above all wishes to express her gratitude to all refugee families placing much valued trust in her, and taking her into their lives. The final component of The Refugee Project is a book published in Turkey titled Yasadisi (Illegal) The book concentrates on the lives of two illegal refugee women, single mothers in their early twenties from Sub-Saharan Africa. The photographs from The Refugee Project has been published in various publications. Their most notable appearance however have been in: Life After Kosovo: Refugees in Northern Albania A UNHCR sponsored exhibit in Istanbul, Turkey (Feb. '99) Kosovo's Children Doubletake Magazine, Issue 17 Joint Exhibit on Politics and Conflict House of Docs, 2002 Sundance Film Festival The Refugee Project Virginia Commonwealth University in Doha, Qatar 2002 The Refugee Project Network of Oxford Women for Justice and Peace (NOW), the Museum of Oxford, U.K. 1-14 March 2003 The Refugee Project Exhiibiting Exile Center Space, University of Manitoba, Canada, December 2004 Refugees, the film Screenings have been in Istanbul/Turkey, Lucania/Italy, and Winnipeg/Canada Yasadisi Plan B Publishing, ISBN 975-8723-14-6, January 2006 The Refugee Project is currently open for grants and sponsorships. Printable Version For other works by Bikem Ekberzade please visit: |
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