Abeer studied English at the University of Damascus and dreamt of being a teacher. She had just gotten her teaching degree but before she could give her first lesson she had to flee. Now, she wishes for nothing more than peace for her country and the safety of her daughter.
She is one of the estimated estimated 60 million people globally are on the move for safety.
“Refugees, their flight, their lives in the camps, that is all the world talks about,” stated Project Life Jacket, in a press release. “That they are human beings, just like you and I, is all too often forgotten.”
That’s why the Swiss NGO “The Voice Of Thousands“, supported by over 20 European NGOs, has initiated Project Life Jacket. Their mission is to shift the focus to these human beings and depict their life stories on life jackets.
“Those very life jackets that have become the symbol of the unnamed refugees,” the press release explained. “The project intends to catapult the refugee crisis back on the agenda of politicians, the media and the European public.”
The project shows 9 different people, who have fled across Mediterranean and are waiting in Greek transit camps to continue their journey. Through images on real used “life jackets” from the beaches of Greece, it shares their dreams to show that everyone is the same, no matter where they are from, with similar jobs, hobbies and dreams.
“When one or two people from our team went to help in camps, what they saw there was horrible so we thought about what we could do to make a difference,” Cyrill Hauser, Executive PR Director, Member of the Executive Board at Jung von Matt/Limmat told DIVERGE. “And being who we are, being creative/pr/digital people, we said let’s do this.”
Hauser explained that it took a few months to get it all together because they had to film this illegally and there was a lot of military checking.
Their goal is to create high visibility in Europe, in order to put the topic back on the agenda of politicians, the media and the European public.
“We create ideas that move people and we hope that this is one of those ideas,” Hauser said. “Instead of selling products, we are changing the perception of a brand and we can actually make a difference in the world.”
For those that want to help their mission, he asks that they talk about it and listen to the stories of the people the project portrays and spread the word by sharing the website and the campaign. He added that if anyone wants to help further, they can support the NGOs that support this cause.
