Rethink Relief is an intense design workshop dedicated to creating technologies for humanitarian relief that specifically address the gap between short-term relief and long-term sustainable development. This hands-on event is an unique opportunity for practitioners, designers and recipients of humanitarian aid to engage and develop a holistic approach to relief that considers the transition from emergency response to post-disaster self-sufficiency as an integral part of the planning and implementation process.

Rethink Relief builds on itself. In 2011 Rethink Relief was held for the first time in the Netherlands and focused on the design of technologies used in emergencies and beyond.
In 2013, in Boston, our activities focused on well-being of humanitarian staff and beneficiaries during emergencies.

In 2014  workshops will take place in the post-conflict region of Northern Uganda from May 25 till June 7 – bringing together people from diverse backgrounds to form multi-disciplinary teams that will work in co-creation with local communities to design technologies that ease the transition from relief camps to resettlement in the village. Teams will be guided through the design process, from the initial problem framing through idea generation, experimentation, sketch modelling, concept selection and prototype fabrication. As we work to develop these solutions, we seek to form a community that will continue to collaborate in the future.

Rethink Relief is organized by D-Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering in Delft, Netherlands.

In order to contact us, please send email to info@rethinkrelief.com