PROJECT LIFEJACKET: TIME TO TURN REFUGEES INTO HUMANS AGAIN

Europe, December 8, 2016 – refugees, their flight, their lives in the camps. That is all the world talks about. That they are people, like you and I, gets forgotten too often. With www.projectlifejacket.com, over 20 European NGOs shift the focus on these humans and draw their life stories from before they had to flee onto life jackets. These life jackets have become the symbol of the unnamed refugees. The project intends to catapult the refugee crisis back on the agenda of politicians, the media and the European public.

Quick Links
Short documentary: https://youtu.be/lAt-8zW_eIc
Video, image and audio download: http://share.jvm.ch/file/7rzH5/

Europe, December 8, 2016 – refugees, their flight, their lives in the camps. That is all the world talks about. That they are people, like you and I, gets forgotten too often. With www.projectlifejacket.com, over 20 European NGOs shift the focus on these humans and draw their life stories from before they had to flee onto life jackets. These life jackets have become the symbol of the unnamed refugees. The project intends to catapult the refugee crisis back on the agenda of politicians, the media and the European public.

Quick Links
Short documentary: https://youtu.be/lAt-8zW_eIc
Video, image and audio download: http://share.jvm.ch/file/7rzH5/

Currently, an estimated 60 million people globally are on the move. Humans, who are stigmatised by a single word: refugee. Often associated with criminal behaviour, violence and poverty, it gets forgotten all too quickly that these people led normal lives before they had to flee.

That is why the Swiss NGO "The Voice Of Thousands", supported by "Borderfree" and "Schwizerchrüz", has initiated Project Life Jacket. "We visited Syrian refugees in camps in Greece and drew the life stories of nine persons onto the life jacket they wore during the passage", says Michael Grossenbacher, joint initiator of Project Lifejacket and co-president of The Voice Of Thousands.

The drawings bear witness to their lives before the war, their lives before they had to put on a life jacket, and with that, the stigma 'refugee'. This message is impressively conveyed in the short documentary, the illustrated life jackets and the interactive platform www.projectlifejacket.com. The project is funded and supported by organisations and clubs from all over Europe.

Nine life jackets, nine life stories
Ismail Nerebani, one of the nine portrayed persons from the Thessaloniki camp in Greece.
The 36-year-old father of two daughters was born in Aleppo and studied French literature. "We were very happy with our life; we did not lack anything. Then the things happened", Nerebani thinks back to his life in Syria before the war. The life stories of Ismail Nerabani and eight other people who fled, were captured onto real, used life jackets taken from the shores of Greece for Project Life Jacket.

On www.projectlifejacket.com the whole world can experience these life stories first-hand through interactive life jackets and interviews. "This initiative not only intends to be thought-provoking, but also to provide opportunities to support it meaningfully and with direct impact", adds Grossenbacher. The platform allows for supporting one or more involved organisations, and hence the people affected, through donations of money and goods and provides the opportunity to get personally involved.

Listen to the life stories on www.projectlifejacket.com and help us bringing the issues back on the agenda of politicians, the media and the European public.

Media contact for enquiries and interviews
Michael Grossenbacher
Joint initiator of Project Life Jacket
E-Mail: projectlifejacket@jvm.ch
Phone: +41 44 254 66 27

Additional links
Short documentary: https://youtu.be/lAt-8zW_eIc
Video, image and audio download: http://share.jvm.ch/file/7rzH5/
Further information: https://www.projectlifejacket.com/media

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProjectLifeJacket
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXyYyUwFRxQaPWRyazY6ohg
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProLifeJacket