Four days. Five cities. One refugee camp.For the first time, a Doctors Without Borders refugee camp is at Flagpole Hill at White Rock Lake Parkin Dallas until Sunday and is here to give a view of the life of an internally displaced person.

Emily Linendoll, press officer for Doctors Without Borders, said the exhibit started in Milwaukee and has given tour-goers a more realistic view of what goes on in the world.

“They get to experience what life would be like at a refugee camp by seeing the toys children play with and the types of tents refugees live in,” Linendoll said.

The refugee camp is made of the actual materials used by Doctors Without Borders in other camps. The 8,000-square-foot exhibit has nine stops in the tour which include: a shelter area, food distribution area, latrine area, water supply, health clinic, cholera treatment center, vaccination tent, nutrition tent and a stop with stories of people uprooted by war.

Adam Gamwell, program coordinator for the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, said three TCU students went Thursday for the opening of the exhibit.

“This is the closest thing to a refugee camp we’ll get in America,” Gamwell said.

Kelly Rand, senior social work and religion major, said it deeply affected her to see the mock-camp.

“I couldn’t even begin to imagine what a refugee camp could even look like,” Rand said.

The students who saw the exhibit Thursday said it put a perspective in their lives.

“The thing that got me was the space where 15 people live is the same size of my bedroom,” Rand said.

Former refugee Besnik Doli who now works as an aid worker, said visitors should just take a minute to think of refugees and internally displaced persons in camps. Doli said they have to remember a refugee camp is not similar to camping.

“When I got out of it, I felt as though I had gotten out of prison,” Doli said. “A prison I didn’t even deserve to go to.”

Doli said he appreciates the basic things of life after four months in a refugee camp.

“It’s the basic things, like water, food, things that you take for granted that you miss,” Doli said. “I’m just happy I don’t have to carry my supply of water.”

Gamwell said he encourages students to go to the event and realize, “we are all part of one world.”

When: Oct. 12 to 14 from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Where: Flagpole Hill, White Rock Lake Park, Dallas
Admission: Free
For more information, contact Emily Linendoll at 646-206-9387