Big Issue ads

Digging in the archives – a stunning series of press ads produced for the Big Issue Foundation. More after the jump.

Hands of Hope for Haiti

One video and three print ads from the People of The United Methodist Church.
The campaign directed those inside and outside the church to 10thousanddoors.org to find out how to help after the Haitian earthquake, in any way they could. The point of the posters was simply to convey that faith + action = hope.

“Of all the things earthquakes can destroy, the human spirit is not one of them.
Find out how to to help the people of Haiti at 10thousanddoors.org."

The prayer wall at Facebook.

The Healing Place: We give them a reason to work

Campaign for The Healing Place, a nonprofit organization in Raleigh USA. Their mission is to help rehabilitate homeless people with substance abuse issues. While most organizations focus on keeping people off the street, The Healing Place seeks to give people new skills and confidence that they can use to reignite their lives as functioning, and working, members of society.

Bringing Solar Internet To Rural Uganda

Former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Anan warns of the danger of excluding poor rural communities from the Internet:
“People lack many things: jobs, shelter, food, healthcare and drinkable water. Today, being cut off from basic telecommunications services is a hardship almost as acute as these other deprivations, and may, indeed reduce the chances of finding remedies to them.”

With this in mind Project FOCUS works with local organizations in rural Southwest Uganda to launch an Internet Café, providing access to information and communication previously unavailable to residents of the region. The Café will also provide technology skills training, a revenue source for a local community-run primary school, and allocate space and tools for the production of creative multi-media projects.
Web access provides communities with the opportunity to improve social welfare, and claim their voice in the global conversation on strategies for rural development. With this service, the local populace will benefit from direct links to job, educational, weather, and health information, as well as more efficient markets for produce and products.

The community Internet café will be administered by I.T. trained staff members from the local partner organization ICOD (Integrated Community Efforts for Development), and will provide technology skills training, a revenue source for a local community-run primary school, and the space and tools for the production of creative multi-media projects. Groups of local teachers, farmers, and healthcare workers in Lyantonde will be connected with respective groups in the U.S., the latter assisting the former in utilizing best-practices while searching the web for relevant materials and networks.

For this project $25.000 is needed. More at the Project FOCUS microsite.

Fundraising for Haiti

It is already ten days ago that Haiti collapsed due to a devastating eartquake.
It was a month ago that an aid worker from orphanage in Haiti said that the country need a disaster to get attention from the rest of the world. Of course it was meant ironically. The country was already mentally weary and anxious.
Now it is the time for fundraising and I hope not only for first aid but also for reconstruction.

For this post I collected some fundraising PSA’s. Feel free to give tips in the comments or via Twitter about more campaigns.

The PSA above is from the Netherlands. Agency N=5.

Widget from the International Medical Corps available for you own website:

Design for Haiti

One in a serie of three from Kyle Ellis also including a t-shirt design and a video.
See it here.

One in a serie of three from Christopher Griego.
See it here.

Great post at Design Informer: Help Haiti: Designers Getting Involved.

See also:
- How can designers help Haiti?
- 26 Well Designed Websites that Help Haiti
- Design for Haiti

Do you know more work about the Haiti disaster? Let us know in de comments.

The Life You Can Save

Not a piece of design or marketing, but absolutely has the power to change the world. Peter Singer’s book ‘The Life You Can Save’ makes a strong, and simple case for philanthropy. Click for book’s website.

“If we could easily save the life of a child, we would. For example, if we saw a child in danger of drowning in a shallow pond, and all we had to do to save the child was wade into the pond, and pull him out, we would do so. The fact that we would get wet, or ruin a good pair of shoes, doesn’t really count when it comes to saving a child’s life.

Approximately 27,000 children die every day from preventable, poverty-related causes. Yet at the same time almost a billion people live very comfortable lives, with money to spare for many things that are not at all necessary.

In The Life You Can Save, Peter Singer argues that if everyone who can afford to contribute to reducing extreme poverty were to give a modest proportion of their income to effective organizations fighting extreme poverty, the problem could be solved. It wouldn’t take a huge sacrifice.”

Save the Children “I WAS…” films

Very hard-hitting films from Save the Children as part of their new ‘EVERY ONE’ campaign. These are filmed profiles of children who have died of easily or preventable diseases. Their parents and siblings talk about who they were, so they don’t become another statistic I guess. Very sad and very true.

I WAS PHILIP

After the jump, I WAS ALFRED, I WAS SAVITA, I WAS PARMESH, I WAS CHUNILAL

Give Barcelona a roof

“For many people in Barcelona this is their home. Give Barcelona a roof.”

Three gorgeous ads for the Arrels Fundació, the Spanish organization for helping the homeless.
Gorgeous yes. Original? No.
In advertising almost everything is already done but this campaign is stolen. Remember the 2006 campaign from Samu Social de Paris? (Blogpost in Dutch)

You’re lucky this isn’t your only meal today

“You’re lucky this isn’t your only meal today.
Nearly 1,200 local kids eat only one meal a day. Help feed our kids at www.kansasfoodbank.org."

Some places are not meant to be homes

Two ads from the French Fondation Abbé Pierre.

“Ne lissons personne vivre dans des logements qui n’en sont pas. Aggissons.”
“Some places are not meant to be homes. Let’s take action.”

Related post: For thousands of people this is the size of their home.

Press the 8 at Facebook

A foam rubber hammer to press on the head of the world’s eight most powerful leaders, asking them to do more to fight poverty. This is ”THE PRESS 8”, the game launched on Facebook by the Italian Coalition Against Poverty (GCAP). Within the framework of the Copenhagen summit, the game aims to put pressure on the G8 and to remind leaders to keep their promises in the fight against poverty, climate change and to achieve the MDGs.

This is part of the first campaign against poverty developed entirely on Facebook that has the aim of raising awareness among Italian and other G8 countries’ citizens through a fun and dynamic approach. Users contribute to the cause by playing with Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy, Silvio Berlusconi, Angela Merkel and other leaders of the G8 countries. A counter at the end of the game measures the pressures exerted on the head of state and allows you to sign the GCAP’s petition and become a fan of the Coalition.

Related post: Against Poverty: Press the 8

Food waste in the Big Apple

Great PSA from City Harvest. They link the food industry and countless organizations, foundations, corporations and private citizens together to help feed their hungry neighbors. Each week they help feed more than 260,000 hungry men, women and children.
City Harvest’ latest PSA, they say it is shot entirely on an iPhone, highlight the amount of food wasted in New York City every day. Every day, 270,000 pounds of food is wasted in New York City, but thousands of residents don’t have enough to eat. 

The 100 poorest

The video above shows a flashmob organised in Budapest by the Hungarian Kurt Lewin Alapítvány (Kurt Lewin Foundation) for their campaign called 100 Legszegényebb (The 100 poorest).
The message is that poverty is more than just being short of money. Poverty can be more: material deprivation, physical or cultural defencelessness, addiction, lack of family relationships.
Main part of the campaign is a book, in which the foundation collected short stories and attached 100 photos about people, who told their stories. An another main part is a traveling exhibition with selected pictures and information.
They promoted the campaign mainly with all kinds of guerilla marketing like the flashmob above but also reading actions, putting poster and stickers everywhere in several Hungarian cities.

The Kurt Lewin Foundation is an independent civil public interest organisation. With their work they wish to make a contribution to the consolidation of a democratic society in Hungary and particularly to the increase of tolerance and the elimination of stereotype-based thinking. They promote social dialogue, tolerance and the dissemination of knowledge and skills required for active civic participation – mainly by the development of critical thinking.

Kaa Chonjo (Watch Out!)

This outdoor ad is part of a new campaign from Kenya. It is a nationwide multimedia campaign to raise awareness and stimulate discussions on issues related to human trafficking. The campaign launched at 12 November in Eldoret in Kenya’s Rift Valley Province.

The Kaa Chonjo (Watch Out!) campaign will use a wide variety of communication channels including radio, television, mobile cinemas, billboards, posters and road shows to raise awareness among communities living in Northern Kenya and the North Rift Valley made vulnerable by drought, the food crisis, as well as civil and political unrest, all of which have often resulted in forced displacement.
The information campaign, which will run until the end of the year, is part of a larger project to provide assistance to vulnerable families in the Rift Valley and Northern Regions of Kenya funded by the Japanese government and supported by its Kenyan counterpart.

“Forced displacement disrupts social and economic support systems within communities and is conducive for traffickers to recruit, transport and exploit women, children and men,” says IOM’s regional counter-trafficking officer Tal Raviv in Nairobi.

An assessment carried out by IOM in the target regions establishes poverty and the search for livelihood as key factors that render people vulnerable to trafficking. It notes for instance that impoverished families from the North Rift Valley tend to migrate to coastal areas in search of employment in the hospitality sector, where they are exposed to exploitation. 

In addition to awareness raising activities, IOM’s counter-trafficking team has established a referral system that enables vulnerable households within the targeted areas to embark on livelihood activities. 

“Providing grants for small scale entrepreneurship or to help poor families send their children to school reduces their vulnerability to human trafficking, smuggling and other forms of irregular migration,” Raviv adds.

I Want a Goat

Donate a goat!

This hilarious video is made by Debbie Glasband who recently volunteered in eastern India for 6 months, working with the tribal people you see in this video. They are indigenous to Koraput, the second poorest district in India. Due to their poverty, illiteracy and status as the bottom of the caste system, they are often taken advantage of by landowners and local officials who deny them their rights, steal what little money they do have and treat them with disdain.
The video stars people from Puki and Nua Kerenga villages, two of many villages that were displaced by hydroelectric dams and mining projects. Forced onto land that is difficult to cultivate, they have resorted to migrant work and borrowing money from landlords in order to survive.

For tribal people who are landless, raising goats is a great alternative source of income. Families who breed goats can earn a good profit selling the kids in the local market. The extra income provides a safety net for families that can be used for things like medicine, food during lean periods and farm equipment.

More information at Debbie’s website Donate a Goat.

The video above is the explicit version. The version after the break is ‘clean’.

Refugees would like to have the same problems you have

Three ads from UNHCR / ACNUR.
Would you like to have the same problems refugees have? 

Giving a $%@#

Holiday shopping stinks! So, make the right choice this year: give manure ($12) from Oxfam America Unwrapped.

37 ways for a better world

Overview of 37 innovation principles and inspiring examples for a better world. Made by Marc Heleven from New shoes today, a ídea factory based in Belgium.

New shoes today is a growing number of soulmates in business who give support to people and organisations on their road to creation, innovation and change. Together with clients they take on 21st century challenges. Their values: open - drive - unity - fun - care - today.

The transcript of the slideshare presentation with all links can be found here.

Lesser Gods don’t Exist

Poster for the Stichting Kinderhulp Bodhgaya (Children’s Foundation Bodhgaya) made from paper leftovers and scrap. Bodhgaya aims to help homeless Dalit (low caste or untouchables) children in Bihar, India and offers them education, medical care and a place to live. The heading in the back says: Mindere Goden bestaan niet / Lesser Gods don’t Exist.

Copy: Children’s Foundation Bodhgaya provides free housing for orphans and abandoned children; offering a home again, medical care, education and vocational training. Contribute to their future!

Nuru

It is hard to surpise me with new creative work after blogging four years about social advertising. But Nuru did! In this post three gorgeous video’s all made in house. It is a combination of personal stories and animated storytelling.
Nuru, a Kiswahili word meaning “light”, is a new humanitarian organization at the crossroads of innovation and extreme poverty.

Nuru founder and CEO Jake Harriman attended the U.S. Naval Academy and served over 7 years in the Marine Corps as an Infantry Platoon Commander and a Special Operations Platoon Commander for an elite unit called Force Recon. During his career, Jake assisted in numerous humanitarian and disaster relief operations in the developing world including Indonesia and Sri Lanka after the Asian tsunami, and he completed 2 combat tours in Iraq. After witnessing the fight against terror firsthand, Jake came to believe that the war against terrorism won’t be won on the battlefield alone. It must be won by eradicating the root causes of terrorism: extreme poverty, lack of education and injustice. Jake left his old life in the Marine Corps and dedicated himself to studying humanitarian development, organizational leadership, innovation, and the problem of extreme poverty. He enrolled in Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) where he began learning at the legendary Center for Social Innovation.

Jake Harriman tells his story in his own way in the video above.

Make FAIM disappear

“In 2009… 1 billion people are suffering from malnutrition
1000 people gathering in Paris to denouce this unbearable fact.”

Action Contre La Faim (Action Against Hunger) organized a mobilization at October 14 in Paris with the help of Magnum photographer Abbas.
People were photograped and invited to put their picture on a giant wall to make disappear the word “FAIM” ("hunger" in french)

1 milion clicks against poverty

A different take on the “put your number here” pixels type of page. Demanding dignity on www.1millionclicksagainstpoverty.org.

Because to make poverty disapear, we first need to see it.

Stand Up! Tie your Knot

From 14 to 18 October Stand Up Against Poverty organised a worldwide event demanding that governments eradicate extreme poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

“Poverty divides the world. Our governments have to put an end to this by 2015. Let’s unite and tie a knot to remind them. Stand Up! Tie your Knot.”

Sell The Vatican, Feed The World

Sarah Silverman’s ambitious plan for feeding the world.

“What is the Vatican worth? Like 500 billion dollars? This is great! Sell the Vatican, take a big chunk of that money, build a gorgeous condominium for you and all of your friends to live in - all the amenities: swimming pool, tennis court, water slide. And with the money leftover, feed the whole fucking world. You preach to live humbly and I totally agree, so now maybe it’s time for you to move out of your house that is a city. On an ego level alone you will be the biggest hero in the history of ever.”