What did you think of our refugee coverage?
This is the fourth and final week of The Refugee Issue. Over the last month, we’ve published a dozen stories about displaced people from around the world. We reimagined a group therapy session in Greece as a screenplay. We explained the existing refugee vetting process through a mini-graphic novel. We shared stories from refugees in Kampala, São Paulo, Nairobi, and Melbourne. We heard from frontline refugee workers and Christian pastors. And more.
We decided to take a deep dive on this population with an eye towards encouraging people unfamiliar with refugee struggles to, perhaps, feel compassion towards them.
After hitting the publish button on our final story an hour ago, I’m now asking myself, “Did we succeed?” The truth is, I’m not sure.
To be sure, given today’s hyper-partisan environment and the charged nature of discussions about refugees, I expected some negative comments. And as anyone who works on the internet can attest, getting unsupportive comments often is a blessing in disguise — it means that your work is making waves beyond your immediate audience.
The Development Set has a journalistic agenda, and not an activist one. With The Refugee Issue, we were just trying to diversify the perspectives people often see and hear about this population, and allow people to come to their own conclusions.
But I won’t lie — my heart did break a little when I saw a few of the responses to our work, like one claiming that 98% of Syrian refugees are able-bodied men looking to spread Sharia law (according to Politifact, about three-quarters of Syrian refugees are women and children), or another condemning someone to death in her home country, or another calling Christians who help refugees naïve. I wouldn’t call these “hate comments,” but rather responses from people with a deeply ingrained belief that anyone forced to flee their homeland is by nature suspicious.
Measuring journalistic impact is tough. And when your goal is as nebulous as to “increase compassion,” it’s nearly impossible. Which is why we’d like to ask you directly: What did you think of our refugee coverage? What stories especially stayed with you? What did we miss or get wrong? What would you like to see from The Development Set in the future? Respond to this letter, or message me on Twitter or by email.
Before getting to this week’s stories, a call for pitches for our next issue: humor. Why does storytelling about social impact, global health, and international development always feel so self-righteous and overly serious? We’d like to spotlight the lighter side of development, and make our readers laugh for once. We’re open to satire, parody, self-deprecating humor, multimedia work — just don’t punch down. Please. Email me (sarika@honeyguidemedia.org) with the subject line “Humor pitch.”
On to our final refugee stories, all of which have an artistic bent. Happy reading!
A Tale of Two Artists, Separated by War
By Andrew Hirsh
Firas takes photos in Syria. Miream paints her homeland while exiled in Australia. Facebook brought their lives — and their art — together. It reads like a heart-wrenching novel with a modern history lesson woven throughout.
A Group Therapy Session for Refugees: A Screenplay
Roula Michati, a psychiatrist who is a refugee herself, holds group therapy sessions for Syrians who are traumatized from everything they’ve recently endured. A snippet of this haunting exchange:
RM: It’s OK to be angry at the situation. Have you been under a lot of stress lately?
Rifat: I have. The sounds I’ve been hearing [in my mind]…They’re getting worse. That buzzing sound…I think they are launching more air strikes any time now, they are going to kill them.
RM: Them? Who are they going to kill?
Rifat: My daughter and wife. They are still in Aleppo, and I’ve lost track of them. If they are dead or alive, my daughter and wife, I don’t know!
From Syria to Seattle, with Love
By Robyn Jordan
A mini-graphic novel that we hope explains the current refugee vetting process, through the eyes of the Bazara family. Stunning work.
Intimate Snapshots of a Syrian Family in America
Once refugees arrive in the United States, what happens to them? Peter van Agtmael takes us into the home of the al-Haj Ali family in Aurora, Illinois.
