Refugee camp visits Grant Park

The sun beat down on Carmen Agoyosilva outside a mock refugee camp in Chicago’s Grant Park. In a few moments she would tour a Doctors Without Borders camp. Over the next hour, she would get a taste of what a refugee would endure. (See slides of the camp.)

Doctors Without Borders is an independent humanitarian organization that provides medical care to refugees around the world. In a year, the organization is sent out on over 4,700 aid assignments.

Last week in Grant Park, the organization’s assignment was to bring awareness to this vast city.

Agoyosilva visited the camp to become familiar with the plight of refugees and to support the organization. “I like the organization because most of their funding goes directly to people in need,” she said.

Aid worker guides describe a refugee’s typical day: waiting for hours in line for food, water or medical care. Among the tents, latrines and medical and nourishment facilities, pictures from actual refugee camps show real faces in desolate situations.

Charlie Kuzner has worked at the organization’s New York office for three years. She chose this organization because of its ability to reach people.

“What really got me is the scope of the operation, treating 10 million people per year, and the speed at which they are able to actually reach people,” Kuzner said.

Karel Janssens has been all over the world with the organization. In Chicago, he describes what he’s seen within refugee camps.

“I want people to understand what a camp looks like, what refugees face, what refugees go through,” Janssens said. “The people you see in these camps are not wounded rebels or soldiers but are women and children.”

There are 33 million people throughout the world who have been uprooted from their homes by war, according to the organization. But many Americans may be surprised that it is such a large number.

People in the United States do not know about the refugees because these stories receive minimal, if any, news coverage due to the lack of journalists in these areas, Janssens said.

“If there are no journalists, then it is not news,” Janssens said. “And if it’s not in the news then it doesn’t exist.”