Artists: Bogdan Dincă, Mircea Reștea
Opening night May 11th, available until June the 8th
Bogdan Dincă and Mircea Reștea are the photographers documenting Emotional Accommodation for CSO Workers project, and at the same time they have spent the first months since the beginning of the war against Ukraine at the borders, photographing everything on sight.
Borders photo exhibit is a mix of works from the early stages of the war, having the refugees and their traumatic experiences at its core, and the portraits of the CSO workers who have been helping them ever since. The activists will have their portraits accompanied by a short text extracted from our interviews with them, giving context to the works.
The goal of the exhibit is to popularize the work that NGOs and state institutions have been doing since the beginning of the war and presenting it to a young, smart public that is populating cultural spaces like Alambik. At the same time, it is our way of paying our respects to all the amazing work done by the CSO workers, so taxing on their own emotional wellbeing. We will be of course inviting these contemporary heroes as speakers at the opening event.
About the artists:
Independent photojournalists, founding members of Documentaria, Bogdan and Mircea are especially interested in social subjects and in the past 15 years they have been photographing vulnerable communities.
Context:
In the context of Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine, civil society in Romania organized itself in an exemplary manner. A year later, the activists and employees of the state structures who came to support the refugees continue to show their solidarity with their neighbours through humanitarian actions and their integration into the community. For them, Progress Foundation conceived the project Emotional Accommodation for CSO workers, developing together with specialists in trauma treatment workshops for those who are on the front line of helping refugees, on the topic of intervention in war-related trauma in children and adults. The role of the courses is to give those directly involved in integrating refugees into their communities some basic tools to help them interact with those fleeing war. Equally, the doctors brought up some rules and limits that they, as non-specialists in psychiatry, must keep in mind, so that their attempt to help does not actually deepen the trauma.
Social workers whose organizations and institutions have already served more than 220,000 refugees from Ukraine have benefited from specialized courses to develop their skills in relating to those fleeing the war, whether they are adults or children. Under the guidance of doctors specialized in treating trauma – Dr. Claudia Năsăudean, primary physician in Pediatric Psychiatry and Dr. Vladimir Nică, primary physician in Psychiatry, they learned how to recognize a person with depression or post-traumatic syndrome, how to intervene and when it is necessary to refer her to a specialist. At the same time, they received practical advice on how to manage their own emotions, how to avoid or treat the burnout that set in almost a year after the start of the war. The project also addresses Ukrainian activists who have joined the initiative.
Emotional Accommodation for CSO Workers is an international project that offers specialised psychological support to CSO workers in the frontline of the humanitarian aid given to refugees in the context of the Russian military aggression in Ukraine. The project is developed by Progress Foundation (Romania), financed by the European Union and Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation, a German Marshall Fund of the United States project implemented in Romania and Ukraine. Opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union and the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation.
Progress Foundation is a non-governmental organization established in 1996 in Bistrita which contributes to the development of community institutions, vulnerable individuals and groups and helps people become stronger through education, technology, research and innovation. The organization supports citizens to evolve, realize their potential and achieve well-being in sustainable and resilient communities. Through the partnerships created, the Progress Foundation focuses on facilitating lifelong learning, transferring innovation, creating IT and STEM skills, and developing new methodologies for participatory design and social inclusion. In order to achieve its goals and to reach any social group, the organization uses public libraries and community spaces in villages and cities as focal points of learning and centers of social innovation. www.progressfoundation.ro.
