MSF - Edmonton event this weekend

While taking a walk along Whyte Avenue this afternoon, I stumbled upon a really interesting educational event.
MÉDECINS SANS FRONTIÈRES/Doctors Without Borders is touring a Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City. They're in Edmonton (McIntyre Park, in Old Strathcona by the farmers' market) until Sunday (9:30-5pm) and providing tours (free of charge) to willing passerby. The tour is really good - in addition to talking about the work that MSF does, the guides try to get visitors to think about what it must be like to be uprooted and end up in a refugee camp. The guide for our group had actually done work in a clinic is the southern Sudan: the kind of insight she shared with us was amazing.

MÉDECINS SANS FRONTIÈRES (MSF), aka Doctors Without Borders, is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning non-governmental organization dedicated to providing emergency medical relief, particularly to refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). They've been around since 1971, and blazed a great many trails in disaster relief and humanitarian assistance (some of them more controversial than others).

Walking through the camp really got me thinking about the work I'm about to be embarking on. In many ways, I'm fortunate this time around - EWB Canada targets their efforts to capacity building in more stable communities, so it's unlikely that I'll be dealing with the realities that MSF volunteers confront overseas, especially in camps like these where violence and rampant illness & malnutrition are common. It really gave me an interesting perspective on the kind of challenges I'll be confronting.

Check it out if you have the time.