Simulation of Darfur Refugee Camps Trains Future Humanitarian Leaders

To a casual visitor, the Harold Parker State Forest in North Andover, Massachusetts, may have looked bucolic during the weekend of April 24 to 26. But for 60 aid-workers-in-training who camped in the forest those three days, it was no walk in the park.

The workers-in-training were graduate students from HSPH, Harvard Kennedy School, Tufts University, MIT, Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center, and other Harvard teaching hospitals. They were participating in an exercise to simulate the refugee situation in Eastern Chad, where thousands of people have fled following violence in the neighboring Darfur region of western Sudan.

Each student was assigned a role in one of eight non-governmental organization (NGO) teams. The students were tasked with planning transportation routes, sanitation facilities, and medical services to meet the needs of the simulated population. These tasks were completed under an increasingly intensifying security situation with faux military checkpoints, gunman attacks, and security evacuations modeled after actual events along the Chad-Sudan border.

"[HHI] was able to create a tense military environment, where our safety was uncertain, yet we had to assess refugee camps, plan service delivery, and, at the same time, coordinate with the UN for our safety," reported Folake Okuyemi, MPH '09, who role-played the CARE team leader and found the simulation "invaluable."

The refugees and other local players -- including militia, rebels, and Sudanese officials -- were role-played by volunteer alumni, students, and staff from HSPH and Tufts. Members of the media role-played themselves, including BBC journalists and cameramen, to give students the chance to interact with reporters as representatives of their assigned NGOs.

Created by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) and the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University, the Darfur simulation was also part of the Humanitarian Studies Initiative (HSI), founded by faculty from Harvard and Tufts -- including Jennifer Leaning of HSPH and Michael VanRooyen of HMS. Hilarie Cranmer, MPH 04, director of the Humanitarian Studies Initiative for Residents at HHI, has more than a decade of experience in the field. Said Cranmer: "The simulation offers a sense of the complexity of this kind of crisis. We aim to help the students become competent, professional humanitarian workers."

As the exercise opened, NGO workers received a map of the area showing border crossings. None of the five refugee camps created for the simulation were cited on the map. It was up to participants to find the encampments.

The team representing the International Rescue Committee (IRC) found themselves lost in the unfamiliar terrain. Luckily, they received guidance from local entrepreneur "Mohammed," role-played by Cranmer. "Look out for the mines, come this way," the guide said as "he" urged the group toward a path. In exchange for helping the IRC find the Farchana refugee camp, "Mohammed" received a bandana and some cash.

As in other refugee camps, the IRC team found painted sticks in the ground at Farchana, which represented particular events. Each stick was marked with a number on a colored background. A black stake with the number 90, for instance, revealed that 90 refugees had died in this camp. Measles outbreaks were indicated with orange, diarrhea with blue. Green-tipped sticks meant that militia lurked nearby.

Two IRC members studied the sticks, taking notes, adding up deaths and illnesses. Others fanned out to interview residents. The refugees answered questions politely, but perhaps differently than NGO staffers might have wished.

"How many shelters are here?" one IRC participant asked of a man sitting on a rock.

"We need more," the man responded. "Can you bring?"

A woman refugee refused to talk to a male IRC member. The team sent a female worker over, who asked, "How many pregnant women are in this camp?"

"The average number. Women get pregnant," the refugee said with a shrug.

Refugees repeatedly requested shelter and food. But the team could only promise to complete their epidemiological assessment as rapidly as possible.

"Through this simulation exercise, students can begin to ask themselves if they are really comfortable with this type of work," noted Jennifer Chan, affiliate faculty with HHI.

Gregg Greenough, HHI research director and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, added, "We want participants to experience enough of the discomfort of the unknown so that learning can take place."

On Friday night, the participants role-playing Janjaweed militiamen launched a massive attack against refugees. Participants spent Saturday tracing the previous night's events, and found black sticks -- indicating the number of people who died -- scattered everywhere. The NGOs came upon a mass grave and responded to BBC questions while cameras rolled.

"What do you do when your epidemiological assessment is interrupted by the militia?" asks Peter Walker, director of the Feinstein International Center at Tufts. "When you're trying to get the evidence out of chaotic situations, you have to be willing to revise and adapt. With this simulation, students get to see how they do when dealing with messiness. Far better they learn this here than in Chad."

-- Eileen McCluskey. Photo by Suzanne Camarata.