Abstract
Recent wars in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa have led in a rise in the number of Internally Displaced Persons who are unable to cross their country's borders in search of refuge in neighbouring countries. These humanitarian crises continue to demonstrate the escalating, urgent, and catastrophic need for humanitarian aid among the affected populations. The coverage of events and humanitarian stories in areas of armed conflict is essential for aiding relief organizations in expanding the scope of their humanitarian projects, as it conveys the severity of the crisis and the extent of the suffering, which can persuade donors to provide more assistance to the needy. In nations such as Afghanistan, South Sudan, Syria, the Central African Republic, Ukraine, Ghana, and Yemen, several intentional and unintentional attacks against humanitarian workers and journalists have been documented.
One of the most successful ways to urge donors to take action, according to studies, is to offer a single case of suffering as opposed to relying on statistics. Other studies have also shown that it is easier to persuade the targeted audience to empathize with impacted individuals when they narrate their own stories (Chang & Lee 2009; Kim 2014). This practice-led research proposes and argues for the use of animation as a potentially useful medium for spreading the humanitarian stories of people living in crisis zones in order to reduce some of the aforementioned obstacles and to protect the anonymity of affected individuals. By engaging with design thinking principles, existing literature and discourses, and conceptually lensing the discussions on animation and representations, this study plans, develops, and produces a first prototype of an animated Public Service Announcement text inspired by a real-world experience. It then rigorously analyses this text with the intention of developing it to an effective animated Public Service Announcement in the form of animated documentary for potential humanitarian donors.