boxing day 2012: 'Band Aid image is starving children in Africa', warns Oxfam as charity says people are no longer moved by continent's problems

Thursday, December 27, 2012

'Band Aid image is starving children in Africa', warns Oxfam as charity says people are no longer moved by continent's problems

PUBLISHED: 06:59 EST, 27 December 2012 | UPDATED: 07:35 EST, 27 December 2012

Negative publicity about Africa is leaving people on the continent going hungry because it is no longer moving the British public, Oxfam has warned.

The aid agency said the public must shake-off old stereotypes of Africa, such as those promoted by the celebrity-driven Band Aid campaigns of the 1980s and 2004.

Oxfam said the majority of people have become desensitised to images depicting issues such as hunger, drought and disease.

Hunger: The public has become desensitised to images such as this of famine and drought in Ethiopia

Over-exposure to negative media and advertising portrayals of Africa and developing countries in other parts of the world was described as 'depressing, manipulative and hopeless' by respondents of a YouGov survey of more than 2,000 people.

Nearly 50 per cent of those polled said it made them feel that conditions for people living in the developing world would never improve.

When asked to select what they thought were the three most pressing problems facing Africa over the next year, almost half identified hunger.

And although 74 per cent thought it was ultimately possible to bring an end to hunger in Africa, only one in five believe they could play an active role in this.

In response, Oxfam is launching a new campaign to try to refocus public support for the cause.

Through the Food for All campaign, the charity aims to show the continent's potential instead of just its problems by striking a more optimistic tone.

Oxfam chief executive, Barbara Stocking, said: 'Oxfam has led the way in drawing attention to the plight of Africa's most vulnerable people and we aren't trying to gloss over the problems that still beset so many of them, particularly levels of malnutrition that remain stubbornly high.

Malnourished: Refugees wait for their daily ration of corn porridge at a refugee camp in Angola

'But we've come a long way since the 1980s and Band Aid's Do They Know it's Christmas? We need to shrug off the old stereotypes and celebrate the continent's diversity and complexity, which is what we are attempting with this campaign.

'The relentless focus on ongoing problems at the expense of a more nuanced portrait of the continent, is obscuring the progress that is being made towards a more secure and prosperous future.

'If we want people to help fight hunger we have to give them grounds for hope by showing the potential of countries across Africa; it's a natural instinct to turn away from suffering when you feel you can do nothing to alleviate it.'

In another recent Oxfam poll, when asked to name the first thing that springs to mind when thinking of Africa, more than half of 1,295 respondents spontaneously mentioned issues relating to hunger, famine or poverty.

Visit www.oxfam.org.uk/food to learn more about Oxfam's work on food security or text FOOD to 70066 to donate £5.