The Refugee Project ®: The Exhibit...

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 Exhibiting Exile: Installation
Center Space, University of Manitoba, Canada, December 2004

The Refugee Project, Mobile Exhibit
Ankara, Emin-Hekimgil Galerisi 5-18 March 2007; Izmir, 4 spaces on Kibris Sehitleri Caddesi 1-16 May 2007; Istanbul, 7 spaces on Istiklal Caddesi, 20 June – 22 July 2007

The Refugee Project
Bursa, Sami Güner Sergi Salonu 14-24 Nisan 2008

The Refugee Project-Darfur, Installation
Istanbul, Lycée Français Saint Benoît d'Istanbul, 21 Nisan-15 Mayis 2008

How it all started...

The Refugee Project is the brainchild of documentary photographer Bikem Ekberzade. Ekberzade started the Project in the midst 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 UNHCR and a German NGO HCC (Humanitarian Cargo Carriers) in Albania and International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent (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 2 years, until fighting ceased in Kosovo and the border opened leading to a rapid return and repatriation.

Azerbaijan was the next step in the Refugee 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 for their return flourished. 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 mention of them were as “burdens” in a country’s economy, unwanted, forgotten.

Following additions to the Refugee Project were the Afghan refugees in Pakistan and the internally displaced in the Penshir valley of central Afghanistan. Ekberzade continued the project documenting the lives of two illegal refugees in Istanbul. The collection of photographs led to a book titled ILLEGAL. The most recent addition to The Refugee Project is the Darfur conflict and the Sudanese refugees taking shelter in Chad.

The simple intention to highlight a humanitarian crisis has now turned into an expansive project seeking to document and expose the grim and overlooked nature of the global refugee crisis. Ekberzade is seeking to concentrate on populations running from direct threat to their livelihood in their country of origin and seeking shelter in different parts of the globe. The project is based on the people themselves, and the photographer above all wishes to extend her gratitute to all families who have placed much valued trust in her and taken her into their lives.

The Refugee Project ®

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The Exhibit...

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Chad/Darfur Emergency -- Situation Reports

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UNHCR | The UN Refugee Agency

Making Sense of Darfur

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