Press action medeor

There are regions around the world where people are suffering from hunger, displacement or inadequate medical care. However, this receives little media attention. These crises are referred to as “forgotten crises”. The lack of media attention means that too little money is made available and donated. With the joint #InDenFokus campaign, 30 aid organizations and the Federal Foreign Office want to draw attention to these forgotten crises. The focus will be on the crises in Bangladesh, Lebanon and South Sudan.

"People are suffering, even if we don't see them suffering. That's why this campaign is so important: to make suffering visible, but also to help alleviate it,” Luise Amtsberg says , Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid and patron of #IndenFokus.

Lebanon: ”The country is collapsing before our eyes".

She traveled to Lebanon in March and to South Sudan in April to get an up-to-date picture of the situation of the people and the need for humanitarian aid. “Lebanon is collapsing before our eyes,” she said afterwards. The reasons for this are complex: social and political tensions, the effects of the war in Syria and the care of Syrian refugees, the 95% drop in the value of the currency and the resulting great poverty among the population. “Around 75 percent of people no longer have enough to eat for themselves and their families,” the patron reports. “Every day, the power cuts across the country last for hours, which also affects medical care and access to water. State schools have been closed since the beginning of the year."

And even if the context in South Sudan is completely different, multiple crises are also coming together here and leading to immeasurable human suffering that is barely noticed in Germany. “Changing this is the mission of our campaign,” Amtsberg says.
Study on media coverage

A study commissioned by pressrelations for the campaign also clearly shows that humanitarian crises are only occasionally covered by the media worldwide. In general, however, there is no long-term interest, nor is there any in-depth editorial coverage of the crisis topics. In 2022, for example, there were around 1.5 million crisis-related reports on Ukraine in the media genres examined, and only around 10,000 on Lebanon, South Sudan and Bangladesh combined.

The study “Spotlighting Humanitarian Crises: Media coverage of Lebanon, Bangladesh and South Sudan” will be presented at a specialist conference on April 18, 2023 at 4 p.m. at the Federal Foreign Office. Together with journalists and representatives from civil society and politics, the event will discuss how forgotten crises can be made visible again and thus promote understanding and solidarity.

Prominent support

The consortium of 30 aid organizations has also planned various events for the week of action. They will receive prominent support from actor Benno Fürmann and rapper MoTrip, who was born in Lebanon. Together with representatives from various aid organizations, the two will travel to Lebanon at the end of April to get an idea of the situation on the ground and the aid provided by the organizations. "Lebanon is representative of so many forgotten crises in so many countries. People are suffering without us even realizing it here. I want to help ensure that these people are not forgotten and that the world takes notice,” Benno Fürmann says.

The trip to the Middle East is also a matter close to MoTrip's heart: “I was born in Lebanon and grew up in Germany. My parents fled the war with my siblings and me in 1989. Growing up in peace was a great privilege. A privilege that many people in my country of birth unfortunately did not have. That is why it is important to me to draw attention to the situation and living conditions on the ground. I want to help bring forgotten crises back to mind."

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