Médecins Sans Frontières - Anti-racism film 16:9 INT multitrack

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSB143525

Date taken / Date Recorded 06/12/2022 11:45 AM

Country Norway

Commissioning section MSF-NORWAY

Photographer / videographer / producer Ryan Rodrick Beiler

Copyright MSF

Usage Rights (MSF) Advertising Campaign, External Media, MSF Fundraising, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★ (F)

Video format prores (Proxy) (apco / 0x6F637061)

Duration 3m54s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 940.72 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist When you picture Doctors Without Borders,
what do you see?
Do you picture someone
who looks like me?
Helping someone
who looks like me?
This is a fundraising poster
MSF Norway used in 2006.
And we’e been using pictures like this
for a long time,
including pictures of me.
The problem is,
we haven’t always given you
the whole picture.
The full picture.
Here we even cropped out
the parents of the boy,
whose name is Ali Hammad
– he’s a real person –
so that he looks
even more alone and helpless.
For years we’e used pictures like this
to raise awareness,
to raise money,
to recruit staff.
But today we recognize
that these images
propagate a single story
and perpetuate
racist stereotypes
of so-called white saviors
and powerless victims.
But Doctors Without Borders
has always been
Nigerians without borders,
Kenyans without borders,
Filipinos without borders,
Haitians without borders,
Mexicans without borders,
Indians without borders,
Koreans without borders,
Quechua women without borders
Nepalis without borders,
Syrians without borders.
We just haven’t focused on them
as much as we should have.
So you might not know
that of all our colleagues around the world,
the largest number are from South Sudan.
You might not know
that this is because
4 out of 5 of our colleagues
are hired locally
in the countries where we work.
You might not know
that today more than half of our international mobile staff,
of which I am one,
come from Africa,
the Middle East,
Asia
and Latin America.
You might not know
that Doctors Without Borders
has so much diversity,
because we haven’t always shown that to you.
And that is because
our humanitarian history is unavoidably rooted
in the history of colonialism
and neocolonialism
and its stubborn stereotypes
of the white European “expert”
and the distant “other” in need.
So now we’e begun the long journey
to change MSF’s culture
and way of communicatingand advocating.
And because we all have blind spots,
we will certainly stumble along the way.
But this isn’t just about getting it done.
It’s about getting it right.
Some changes should be easier than others.
Like showing a more representative picture
of who we really are
and where we are coming from
when we tell our story.
Our whole story.
Of course, that story still includes
people who look like me,
because that is still true.
However,
white people shouldn’t be the center of every story.
Because that is not the whole story.
That’s why we want to pass the mic
to our colleagues around the world
much more often.
So that more people from our diverse workforce,
and patients themselves,
can tell their own stories with their own voice,
from their own perspectives
and co-own the story.
This is important.
So now it’s also up to you.
Will you listen to them?
We hope you do.
Some say that fewer people will listen
when the story isn’t told by someone who looks like me.
They say that this kind of poster
won’t raise as much money.
And that means we’ll save fewer lives.
Will you join us in proving them wrong?
We want to believe you will.
Because this is not about us and them.
It is not about heroes and victims.
This is about global solidarity
and humanitarian justice.
Because we are all just human beings
with the sameworth and dignity
and the same right
to live in safety and health.

LOGO + END TITLES

According to the principle of “nothing about us without us”,
developed by MSF Norway Communications and Fundraising teams
in consultation with:

Dr. Tammam Aloudat - President, MSF Netherlands
Wairimu Gitau - Lecturer, Daystar University
Atena Hensch - Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Officer
Arantza Peralta - MSF Antiracism Project Leader
Erephina Ratemo - Project Leader, MSF Academy
Shanti Sachane - Psychosocial Focal Point

Special thanks to our
colleagues without borders,
in order of apperance:

Erephina Ratemo - Project Leader, MSF Academy
Norodin Polangi - Driver
Dr. Princess Norsaypa P. Panontongan - NCD Focal Person
Johaniya H. Daud - NCD Nurse
Olriche Saint-Juste - Project Medical Referent
Arantza Peralta - MSF Antiracism Project Leader
Dr. Raju Sira Mahalingappa Guru - MSF Norway Board Member
Nicky Kim - International Contracting Office HR Team Leader
Dr. Selene Manga - Epidemiologist, MDR-TB Senior Researcher
Priyanka Tiwari - Medical Team Leader
Salah Dasuki - Search and Rescue Operations, Cultural Mediator