adminThe UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the celebrity videos show how warfare can change a family’s future in just one minute, but also how refugee families can be helped and find hope even during times of hardship.
The agency has also lined up a long list of international celebrities who have signed up to the “1 family” campaign, which features video messages and a unique call to action project.
“Families separated, children left behind, some killed and left to rot on the street side: how would you like it if this happened to your family?” Kenyan musician and songwriter Maia von Lekow posed.
“The walk of desperation into the unknown for a better life is what faces many refugees all around the world. Please let’s come together and support a family.”
On World Refugee Day, UNHCR is asking the public to make the same perilous journey by contemplating what they would take if forced to flee.
“People can upload a photo of themselves with their chosen object, or tweet about it through the World Refugee Day website,” UNHCR said in a statement issued in Nairobi yesterday. The photos will be uploaded to a Pinterest board dedicated to the project. Several celebrities have already taken part, including Lekow.
Lekow has added her voice to those of country music superstars Lady Antebellum, Colombian rock musician Juanes, author Khaled Hosseini, classical singer Barbara Hendricks and international supermodel Alek Wek by recording a UNHCR World Refugee Day appeal.
Against the backdrop of massive concurrent refugee emergencies in Syria, Mali, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of the Congo, the “1 family” campaign reminds audiences that the casualties of war are mothers, fathers, sons and daughters — families.
More than 1 million people are internally displaced (IDPs) in Somalia and over one million Somalis are refugees in neighboring countries alone.
According to the UNHCR, recent conflicts have forced record numbers of families to leave everything behind. It’s estimated that two families flee from violence or persecution each minute.
The UNHCR said it has commissioned renowned photographer Brian Sokol to produce a unique project called The Most Important Thing which reveals — through words and pictures — the heart-wrenching decisions refugee families must make when they are forced to flee their homes.
“The portraits take us on a harrowing journey by focusing on what families took, and recounting how they survived,” the UNHCR said.
During the World Refugee Day, the UNHCR commemorates the strength and resilience of the more than 45 million people around the world forced to flee their homes due to war or persecution.
Multiple refugee emergencies have forced record numbers of people to flee, yet the vast majority of media coverage given over to the conflicts in Syria, Mali, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, rarely focuses on the human cost of war.
The “1 family” campaign aims to remind the world that the victims of war are mothers,fathers, sons and daughters and that even 1 family torn apart by war is too many. — Xinhua.
Online Reporter