Amy Pelican, an eighth grader from Fritsche Middle School in Milwaukee, listens to volunteers talk about life in a refugee camp. (AP Photo/ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Jack Orton)

Thousands of people went to Milwaukee's lakefront to see what life is like for 33 million people who have lost their homes. A model of a refugee camp was set up at McKinley Park. People could visit the camp for four days in September.

Guides gave tours for the visitors. The guides were employees of Doctors Without Borders.
Many of the guides talked about their own experiences working with refugees. Some of the guides are doctors or nurses.

Other guides are logisticians. Logisticians do work like moving supplies, setting up tents for the camps and operating equipment.

One of the guides who came to Milwaukee was Doctor Unni Karunakara. He has been with the group since 1995.

Group helps people through crises
Karunakara says his reasons for working with refugees is about helping a person through a crisis and keeping that person's dignity alive through terrible times.

"They have been attacked. There is disease, no food or homes," he said. "In those times, for them, it is someone who comes from the outside and stays with them and helps them through a difficult period."

Milwaukee was the first of five cities in the United States on the current tour. The camp has been shown in more than a dozen countries.

Doctors Without Borders gives free food and medical aid to people who are forced out of their homes by wars and natural disasters. The group says 33 million people around the world are living as refugees.

A refugee is a person who seeks shelter or safety. Refugees have left their homes. They may have been forced to leave by storms, floods, wars or the threat of violence.

Some refugees cross borders to find safety in other countries. But many refugees are living in their own countries. Those people are called internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Doctors Without Borders says about 21 million people are internally displaced persons today.

People who cross borders into other countries are protected by international laws. Sometimes people who remain in their own country do not get much help from their own government.

Group is in 70 countries
About 30,000 people work for Doctors Without Borders. About 10,000 of those workers are staffing refugee camps around the world at any given time. The group has operated in more than 70 countries.

Doctors Without Borders has camps in such countries as Iraq, Somalia and Thailand. Many of the people in the camps in Thailand have fled the nearby nation of Myanmar.

Refugees also get free water and shelter from Doctors Without Borders.

About 90 percent of the money that pays for Doctors Without Borders comes from the general public. The rest comes from international agencies and governments. Doctors Without Borders was started in 1971. A group of doctors in France founded the organization. In 2006, the group received gifts of $714 million.

Source: Various; Journal Sentinel article by Georgia Pabst