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Thursday 13, June 2013
BUDAPEST, 13 June 2013 (UNHCR) – A week ahead of World Refugee Day (June 20) the UNHCR has launched a new social advocacy campaign to highlight the impact of war on families. The 1family campaign features refugee stories from around Central Europe and the world with a unique call to action.
Against a backdrop of multiple emergencies in Syria, Mali, South Sudan and the Democratic of Congo, the 1 family campaign reminds audiences that the casualties of war are mothers, fathers, sons and daughters – families.
It shows how war or persecution 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.
In Central Europe, the 1 family campaign site reveals compelling stories of refugees now residing in the region who struggled or still struggle to reunite with their families.
A unique call to action project
The call to action project was inspired by a UNHCR-commissioned photo series The Most Important Thing by photographer Brian Sokol. The photo project reveals the heart-wrenching decisions refugee families must make when forced to flee their homes.
UNHCR’s campaign features photographs of refugees now living in Central and Eastern Europe with their most precious thing. The stories take us on harrowing journeys by focusing on what families took, and recounting how they survived.
UNHCR is appealing to the public at large to make the same perilous journey – if only for a moment – by contemplating what they would take if forced to flee.
From the 1 family campaign site, people can upload photos of themselves with their chosen objects, tweet about them, or post them on Facebook. Each photo will be uploaded to a global Pinterest board dedicated to the project or can be posted to one’s own Facebook page through a new app called If I had to flee.
Visitors to the site can also add the UNHCR timeline cover to their Facebook profiles, place the campaign banner on personal blogs and sites and share the campaign site on their social media channels. The campaign also encourages people to volunteer to help refugees integrate.
Public events for World Refugee Day
In celebration of World Refugee Day the UNHCR brings to Budapest, Sofia, Bucharest, Ljubljana, Warsaw and Prague a spectacular multimedia projection of photography, film, music entitled Sanctuary & Sustenance: The Story of Many Journeys, which will screen from sunset in central locations in these cities.
A full list of timings and other public events is at www.unhcr-centraleurope.org/1family
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