Photographer Laura Baker: 'Masks 4 Za'atari' - a collaboration with Helen Storey, LCF and @peoples_masks

By Anna FitzPatrick

Last week, a collaborative project was launched between refugees living in Za’atari Refugee Camp, the UNHCR, University of Sheffield, University of the Arts London, Al Albayt University and the University of Petra. The project will fund PPE being co-designed and produced there, leading to new sustainable enterprises in camp and beyond.

Last year I was privileged enough to visit Za’atari. Leaving the UK’s divisive Hostile Environment I found people working to build themselves new homes and new livelihoods in the harsh arid desert under 100 kilometers from Jordan’s capital Amman. Za’atari is a refugee camp in Jordan. As of October 2018, Za’atari was home to about 78,357 refugees, of whom nearly 20% were under five years old. I joined Professor Helen Storey for a week there in February 2019 and later in October during her time working as the camp’s first Designer in Residence. It is a role that is continuing into 2020. Yet, as we have all experienced, the changes this year have brought and altered both the expectations and realities of collaborative working between here and there.

Helen continues to work with those living in Za’atari, albeit for now, at a physical distance. However, the challenges remain. The need for care and protection. The need for self-sufficiency. The need for solidarity with others. An understanding of our interconnectedness as humans and citizens of our fragile world.

The latest funding from the UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) is a welcome support for these challenges. Funding will support a new PPE project in Za’atari. Since March, researchers have been working with the UNHCR to make PPE in Za’atari, using digital printing and sewing capabilities to co-create innovations such as prototype laser-cut and 3D-printed face shields, masks, shields and gowns. The first cases of COVID-19 have just been registered in Za’atari. Now more than ever, we need to work collaboratively to ensure the health and protection of those living and working there.

The project will enable a team of interdisciplinary researchers to work alongside NGO’s and refugees, to co-produce PPE for production in Za’atari. This will help protect those living there, giving them access to PPE. Crucially it will enable everyone to share the skills involved in the design and manufacture of reusable PPE. In addition, the project will research how the availability of PPE affects camp residents’ attitudes and behaviours to the risks from health threats.

A key collaborator in the project is @peoples_masks, a project set up by Laura Baker, Margot Bannerman and Anna Hart (all colleagues at Central St. Martins). People’s Masks shares patterns, supplies face masks and encourages the collective making of thousands of washable fabric masks. Helen and Laura collaborated on ‘Masks 4 Za’atari’ to mark World Refugee Day on 20 June. The pattern for these reusable masks has continued to be developed and will be part of the collaboration between those living in Zaatari, UAL, the University of Sheffield and Jordanian researchers.

In all of this, we also have much to learn from refugees as well – this is a reciprocal form of co-creation – their experience informs all our futures. The pandemic has illustrated the pressing need to be collaborative, support and protect. In utilising design thinking, key fashion and textiles skills and a commitment to social justice, the ‘Masks 4 Za’atari’ PPE project does just that.

Masks 4 Za'atari: Dealing With A Crisis By Building Livelihoods