Exhibition sheds new light on refugees

The life and times of a refugee were explored at an exhibition in Bushey last month. Author and campaign fundraiser Sue Hampton, who lives in Berkhamsted, welcomed visitors to Bushey and Oxhey Methodist Church on November 9 to see for themselves the stories of refugees, their plight and how their accounts of the often harrowing, dangerous and desperate fight for freedom and a new life were captured by moving images and mixed media. The idea of the exhibition stemmed from a recent book Sue published called I Am Me, a fundraising picture book for pre-school years and beyond which explores the experiences of a child refugee leaving home and arriving in the UK. Sue said: “I Am Me is a simple picture book which aims to educate the young about what is a serious situation happening in the world right now. It’s about developing sympathy through understanding and raising awareness.” Sue became heavily involved in the campaign to support refugees when she joined the group People Not Borders in February last year. The group’s work centred around collecting food, clothes and toiletries to distribute to countries like Syria and Turkey. The stories, the fundraising and the passion for supporting the refugees culminated in the eye-opening exhibition which toured the county. The photographs and media accounts were thought-provoking and took away some of the stigmas and bad press surrounding refugees. Sue added: “We do what we can to help. The problems seem to increase by the day but you can’t allow the scale of the problem to prevent you taking action.”