STAND WITH AFRICA
A Campaign of Hope

Stand With Africa is an ongoing campaign of Lutheran World Relief, the ELCA World Hunger Program and LCMS World Relief. The campaign supports African churches and communities as they withstand HIV/AIDS, banish hunger and build peace. 

Lent 2001 marked the launch of Stand With Africa an ongoing campaign of Lutheran World Relief, the ELCA World Hunger Program and LCMS World Relief. The campaign supports African churches and communities as they withstand HIV/AIDS, banish hunger and build peace. It gives special emphasis to an often forgotten continent that is a place of promise and progress, despite its problems.

Hey Belle, Sorry its so late. Here are some quotes form the article you found and some extra points at the bottom. Still looking for more solid info on how it has been done over time… everything just keeps coming up with racisim! xx

‘When it comes to reporting Aids in Africa, Baffour said the Western media resort to the use of black and white photos because black and white photos have the ability to convey ghoulishness and scariness. He showed the seminar hard examples of this – copies of Newsweek, Time, Fortune, The Economist, and The Guardian’s (weekend colour magazine) which all had everything in colour, except the section on Aids in Africa.’


What is the message here, Baffour asked. Are they out to frighten the Africans into submission or help them to understand what is Aids and its consequences? Anne Koch, executive editor of current affairs of BBC radio, said ‘when people think of Congo, they think heart of darkness’…they’re not right but that is the case. 

To which, Baffour said the Western media had the responsibility to educate their people rather than perpetuate those prejudices and misconceptions. It is the responsibility of the media, he said, to tell the people that the sun shines more in Congo than in the UK…and thus Congo cannot be the heart of any darkness.

-For as long as photos have been taken of Africa and the famine there has always been a firm amount of them produced in grayscale.

-Most viewers tend to link the black and white photo of a malnourished infant with the past; as if the infant has already or very soon will pass away. The media counts on creating this guilt and pitiful feeling to try gain sympathy and help from Western Society.

http://www.africasia.com/archive/na/01_0708/cover2.htm

Home Truths by European Journalists

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information sources:

Feed the Hungry for Jesus’ Sake

As children starve, world struggles for solution

A shock campaign is a series of advertisements created in attempts to provoke strong emotions within the audience through the use of strong imagery, such as children close to death in videos portraying the situation in Africa, or extremely poor conditions. These work in the short-term, as they do manage to stir feelings while they are being viewed, but because we cannot directly relate to the scenarios in which the advertisements are being played out, we soon forget about them and the advertisement loses effect. Another reason shock campaigns lose their effect is to blame on the repeated use of them throughout the years – as people are shown more and more of these commercials, page ads, handouts, they become desensitised to the strong imagery and don’t feel the strong effects they had initially.