By Zarina Holmes

This summer Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF UK) will be showcasing a pioneering interactive exhibition at Glastonbury Festival, in collaboration with live performance collective Lyrix Organix.

Watching MSF multimedia showcase on a tablet while I was lying down on a CTC (cholera treatment centre) stretcher.

On 19th May I attended MSF’s innovative Glastonbury Festival 2011 project launch at West Bank London, which is a new street art gallery in Westbourne Grove.

The international humanitarian aid organisation will be showcasing a pioneering interactive experience in a UK festival featuring Haitian graffiti, photo exhibitions and a spectacular set.

The festival visitors will also experience MSF’s pioneering cholera treatment centre (CTC), as used in the field in Haiti, where the CTC is a crucial feature in MSF’s frontline operations.

MSF are collaborating with Lyrix Organix, a collective of spoken word, folk and hip hop artists, at Glastonbury Festival.

Initially I came to see the graffiti demonstration and photography showcase by MSF’s staff. In Haiti, graffiti art is a popular medium to spread the health awareness messages to the public.

However it was these plastic chair exhibits that was stuck on my mind that night.

In an outbreak scenario, when the MSF medics run out of stretchers, they will have to place the cholera patients on chairs like these. Buckets will be placed underneath the holes to collect the patients' discharge.

MSF multimedia editor, Pete Masters, showed me around the exhibition. Last year he had presented the Wounds Dossier and MSF’s multimedia project at Sojournposse’s London Design Festival event, “Aesthetic as a means to heal”.

“Cholera can be treated easily,” he explained. “Unfortunately the outbreaks often happen in places without a proper source of clean water, such as in disaster areas.”

Cholera is an acute diarrhea disease that spreads through contaminated water and food sources. Up to 80% of the cases can be successfully treated with oral rehydration salts. With correct treatment the case of fatality should remain below 1%.

However people with low immunity – such as malnourished children or people living with HIV are at greater risk of death when infected.

Visitors at the CTC tent using tablets for interactive experience.

Masters showed me the CTC tent, where six stretchers were lined up with intravenous fluid stands. An actual CTC stretcher would have circular hole in the middle, with a bucket underneath, to allow the patient to discharge himself.

Then he took me to the back of the tent to show a couple of green plastic chairs with makeshift holes in the middle.

“When we run out of stretchers, we have to place the cholera patients on chairs like these.”

As someone who was trained in design, I was stunned.

I felt sad imagining a modest object of comfort being appropriated to accommodate a person in acute physical pain.

The plastic chairs were really effective in illustrating how desperate a mass outbreak situation could get.

Photography exhibition by MSF staff.

The medics on the ground have to be creative and make do with whatever is practical. Without funding and support, it would be a huge struggle for MSF medics to do their jobs with appropriate tools.

Later that evening, the guests were entertained by a special spoken word session by Lyrix Organix’s performers.

Inspiring spoken words performance brought by Lyrix Organix collective.

It was inspiring to see positive collaborations between artists and NGO like this.

Please support MSF’s Glastonbury Festival 2011 project. Twitter: @MSF_Live and @MSF_UK. Facebook: www.facebook.com/msf.live

MSF in action in Haiti.