Za'atari refugee cookbook: Relevance, challenges and design considerations

Abstract

With 83,000 Syrian refugees, Za'atari camp in Jordan has become the second largest home for displaced people. Engagements with refugees residing in the camp and stakeholders within the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) indicated that food is an integral part of communicating refugee identities and may play a role in meeting UNHCR project mandates, including wellbeing and capacity building. We present preliminary findings of ethnographic research exploring (1) the role of food within UNHCR project mandates, (2) motives for the creation of a Za'atari refugee cookbook and (3) the spatial, temporal and infrastructural challenges that need to be considered when designing the cookbook.