Designers can Contribute!

While looking into the different aspects of the topics addressed in the lecture by Dr. Bruce Becker, I came across a photograph that made me question myself, and my ignorance towards the 'other 90 percent'.

This photo was taken by Kevin Carter in 1994 during the Sudan Famine. Carter won a Pulitzer Prize for this photo, only months before he committed suicide due to depression because of all he had witnessed during his time in the northern part of Africa. This particular photograph depicts a stricken child trying to make her way towards a United Nation’s food camp that is located about a mile away. The vulture in the background is following the child, waiting for her to die so that it can eat her. Whatever happened to the child eventually is unknown, since Kevin Carter, the photographer, left the scene right after the photograph was taken.

After looking more into this, I found that this case was definitely not the only one where weakness by extreme hunger prevented people from reaching central food aid outlets. Distributing the food to where people live, instead of holding it at food camps that not many families have access to, is an idea proposed and put into action by several non-profit organizations. Food camps also threaten the population’s health by helping to spread disease because of poor sanitation and overcrowding. By providing people with food where they live, people will not have to travel miles out of their home and village for food. Smaller stations can be designed close to each village/town, or next to a couple of villages, so that the inhabitants won’t have to walk for hours for a meal. Also, if the gathering is smaller, it lessens the risk of diseases like cholera from being spread because of overcrowding.

This is where designers can best contribute by designing ways of getting food into these close knit villages and towns from the bigger cities. This could mean re-thinking transportation methods. This has already been done to an extent, for example Worldbike are redesigning bicycles so that larger amounts of food can be transported at a time, and more number of people can travel on a bicycle to a food camp, i.e. a father can take his children.

I think that the best way for people, designers specifically, to help contribute is to raise awareness. I know that many people such as myself were not, or are still not, aware of the severity of the issue. I strongly believe that as designers we have special tools to make this happen. Most people respond to visual aids, and designers can relate these issues through their work and talent. Help is needed in every phase of this process; more donations are needed, more volunteers are required, etc. I am sure that there are a lot and people who would want to help people if they were aware of the situation at present in third world countries. I know of people who are willing to help, but do not know how to or where to start. Designers can help by being their link.