unicef

With no paid media, and in less than one week, Harry & Ahmed’s story has reached an audience of over 5 million people to date.

Its message has been widely covered by the mainstream press and many different markets have translated the film, giving a truly global reach.

Hundreds of thousands of people have showed their support by sharing the video on facebook and twitter. Including some of the web’s most high-profile celebrities, including Kim Kardashian, P!nk, and John Legend. 

With millions of earned media impressions the film has fueled global support for child refugees, and Harry & Ahmed Shared Story has become an important piece of the refugees-welcome movement.

So, we created a film shows the shocking parallels between the Syrian child refugees today and the child refugees of World War II in a very personal way. In a split screen Harry (an elderly WWII survivor) and Ahmed (a young Syrian boy) describe their journeys as child refugees. As they speak their words come together to build a single, seamless narrative. They’re telling the same terrible story, 80 years apart. 

Current and historical footage accompanies their voice, illustrating their strikingly similar stories side by side -- both escaped violence, were separated from their mothers, and encountered a treacherous journey by boat, before finally reaching safety. 

At the end of the film, their identities are revealed and the message is clear. We didn’t do enough to protect child refugees during WWII and 80 years later, the story is being repeated.

The world is facing the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII. Because of conflicts in Syria and elsewhere, we’re seeing the largest movement of refugees across Europe in 80 years. Nearly half of those refugees are children.

With anti-refugee and anti-Muslim sentiment on the rise, and in the wake of President Trump’s executive order banning refugees from entering the United States, UNICEF needed to rally global support for the millions of child refugees who’s lives hung in the balance.

We needed an idea that could tap into the global consciousness and make the world realize that one of our greatest mistakes, was being made again.