Vital Signs Africa: Report as artifact

This website was created as a new way to report back 3 years of work with UNHCR Malawi and UNHCR Mozambique. (2022 – 2025) – Vital Signs is a work which finally brought together 124 people and 24 different organisations, collaborating between Dzaleka Refugee Camp, Malawi, Maratane Refugee Settlement, Nampula province, Mozambique and London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, UK.

In response to the impact that the closure of USAID by the Trump administration (in Nov 2024 )had on all the refugees, communities, NGO’s and local organisations we have worked with, it was impossible to report back or evaluate in traditional ways – much of what we had created together, closed down as a consequence, and individual lives were thrown into peril as protection, education, water, food and healthcare were deeply impacted.

UNHCR Mozambique closed its offices in early 2026 and UNHCR Malawi closed in November 2025.

It made sense therefore, to create a record of the experience itself, not with academic parameters in play, but with the ambition instead, to try and share what the 3 years was like as a human experience and where it leaves us all now.

The site is purposefully student facing, multimedia and interactive and whilst guided by a flow of the deepest memories of our relationships and the 11 projects which were co imagined and delivered over the period, is intended to be of value to support the student journey of becoming the next generation of designers and thinkers; encouraging the life skills of resilience and living with purpose.

• https://www.vital-signs-africa.com
• https://dzalekaartslab.org
• https://www.sustainable-fashion.com/vita...
• https://www.sustainable-fashion.com/post...
• https://www.sustainable-fashion.com/post...
• https://www.sustainable-fashion.com/post...