CENDEP Newsletter, September 2021

 

Mindful Sheltering: how can the Shelter and Settlements sector recognise and enhance its impact on mental health in humanitarian crises?

Sue Webb and Emma Weinstein Sheffield write:

“Improved shelter conditions can save lives, reduce disease, increase the quality of people’s lives, help mitigate the impact of climate change ... and ... contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals”

Recognition of the linkages between adequate housing and health has been gaining ground in high income and development settings in recent years and is now having an impact on humanitarian discourse and practice. Adequate housing for people displaced by disaster and conflict can help to protect them from respiratory borne infections like COVID-19 and mitigate other housing related risk factors for physical ill-health like household air pollution, overcrowding, thermal extremes and poor access to sanitation. Inadequate housing also impacts mental health both directly and through the stress related to physical ill-health. Inequalities in access to adequate housing and green spaces are particularly acute in humanitarian settings, where people living in overcrowded buildings and camps are at greater risk from a multitude of health issues, and have limited power to influence improvements to their living conditions. Awareness of these issues and related knowledge gaps prompted further investigation within the humanitarian Shelter and Settlements sector, responding to a need to uncover and better articulate the impacts of existing Shelter and Settlements practice on mental health and well-being and to plot a path towards more deliberate and documented beneficial impacts.

As Covid restrictions ease, local businesses support the Oxford Human Rights Festival fringe exhibition ‘The Next Generation - Young Rohingya Refugees’

The Oxford Human Rights Festival run by the staff and students at the Centre of Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP), Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment (TDE) at Oxford Brookes University showcases photographs taken by the Rohingya refugees in the camps of Bangladesh. 

The exhibition entitled “The Next Generation - Young Rohingya Refugees’ will run at Common Ground, Little Clarendon Street from 1-30 September and will then move to Tap Social in Botley from mid October for the rest of the year. Entrance is free for both venues. The project curator will give a talk on the exhibition on the evening of 17 September at Common Ground - booking required.

Bookings

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-next-generation-young-rohingya-refugees-exhibition-common-ground-tickets-169085899477