“The Bhutanese Refugees: The Story of a Forgotten People”

While conducting research for my blog, I stumbled upon a beautiful and informative website entitled, “Bhutanese Refugees: The Story of a Forgotten People.” The website was created by a charity based in Europe called PhotoVoice. The organization’s mission is to empower disadvantaged populations throughout the world through photography skills. The hope is that photography skills could potentially “transform” lives. PhotoVoice worked closely with Bhutanese refugees living in the refugee camps in Nepal to create the website.

There are several different sections within the website that make it such a valuable resource for all individuals, including both educators and students. Firstly, there is extensive information about different aspects of the camp, such as education, employment, sanitation, food rations, and many more. One of the more interesting features of the site is a virtual tour of the camp that includes a map of Nepal with the locations of the camps, and a series of photographs of the Bhutanese refugees in their respective camps. Furthermore, there are personal stories from Bhutanese children and teenagers living in the refugee camps. Please click on the link below to access the virtual camp tour.

http://www.bhutaneserefugees.com/camptour.php

Secondly, the site provides readers with information about all aspects of the country of Bhutan, including the geography, political history, generalized history of the country, as well as the history of the conflict that has caused so many Bhutanese people into exile. There is a particularly useful timeline that provides brief snippets of information about the history of the country beginning in the 1890s and ending in 2009.

This is website is full of amazing resources for anyone who wants to learn more about the origins of the conflict in Bhutan and the refugee situation. The site is filled with beautiful photographs of the Bhutanese refugees, and many, if not all of the photographs have been taken by the refugees themselves.