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Charlotte
du Payrat
VOLUNTEERING - A Drop in the Ocean - OHF
2019
I spent two months in Lesvos, the closest European island close to Turkey.
I volunteered for A Drop in the Ocean NGO, collaborated with the Low Tech Lab with refugees and helped One Happy Family NGO. With more than 100 NGOs on the island, a lot are doing the same things but they don't communicate that much between each other.
A lot of refugees reach the island, either they flee horrible situations, from economic to politic and climatic or they are looking for a new life, in a safer place. A lot of them suffer from traumatisme and need specific help and care.
To communicate with people coming from different countries, such as Afghanistan, Iran, Yemen, Somalia ... inclusif design is needed. A lot of minorities such as children, women, lonely men, minor ... need more care.
My role as a designer was to see opportunities from problems and make the NGO aware of the issues helping them to implement solutions. If you don't observe properly and look from a step back, you will never see what is going wrong.
“How an NGO can be socially and environmentally involve in the refugees crises?”
Tawashi activity
The observation I made was about the fabric waste created at the end of a day. Instead of seeing it as a scrap, I tried to turn it into a project. I noticed that men were very good tailors and women knitted very well. I asked the Low Tech Lab to build the knit frame and collected fabric in the NGO centers. This step was the hardest part as people don't really care about ecology.
The idea was to take advantage of scraps and turn them into an hygienic personal object. Knowing that water was not coming well into the camp, having something to wash the face was useful.
People really enjoyed creating their Tawashi sponge, from children to men and women.
The other idea was to make a big fabric thread and turn it into a carpet to give a bit of joy in their tent.
Activities schedule
My other observation and experience was about the activities offered by the NGO. It was hard to remember the schedule of the place and tell people when to come and at what time. Refugees had some difficulty to remember the time and were knocking everyday at the door while a class was happening.
My idea was to create a visual schedule to let people know all the activities the NGO was offering and when it would take place. I decided to translate it in 5 languages, with colors and pictograms to make it more understandable.
As the activities change quite fast, my proposal included removable cards. It is a panel with dates and time and cards are added on it. This allowed me to create more card from France as the NGO just need to print and past them on the schedule.
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