In March she traveled to Lebanon and in April to South Sudan 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 the Syrian refugees, the currency’s depreciation of 95 percent and the resulting great poverty among the population.
“Around 75 percent of people no longer have enough to eat for themselves and their families,” reports the patron. “There is a power cut for hours every day across the country, 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 come together here too and lead to immeasurable human suffering that is hardly noticed in Germany. “Changing this is the mission of our campaign,” said Amtsberg.
The media report too little on humanitarian crises
Also, a study commissioned for the campaign by pressrelations shows clearly that worldwide humanitarian crises are only selectively in the media focus. In general, however, there is neither a long-term interest, nor is there a more in-depth editorial treatment of the crisis topics.
In 2022, there were around 1.5 million crisis-related reports about Ukraine in the media types examined, and only around 10,000 about Lebanon, South Sudan and Bangladesh together.
Study on media reporting
The study “Spotlighting Humanitarian Crises: Media Reporting on Lebanon, Bangladesh and South Sudan” will be presented at a specialist conference on April 18, 2023 from 4 p.m. in the Federal Foreign Office.
Together with journalists and representatives of civil society and politics, the event will discuss how forgotten crises can be made visible again and thus promote understanding and solidarity.