“Why was I not immediately outraged when I saw the 12-year-old black African, heavily pregnant girl-child, Fridah, posing in pastel-coloured maternity clothes, in quite a sensual manner, in the Plan International Finland campaign advertisements meant to raise awareness about child pregnancies, placed on billboards, streets and public transport spaces all over Finland?”, asked Dr. Faith Mkwesha, Executive Director of the non-profit organization SahWira Africa International and researcher in gender studies at Åbo Akademi University. The advertisement campaign was awarded prizes for best advertisement.
SahWira Africa took a bold step to challenge the negative representation of Africans that perpetuates stereotypes and prejudices in the West, and demanded that Plan International Finland withdraws the campaign, and offers apologies to the African and PoC community, and return the prizes awarded to them. Plan has refused to apologise, and to return the prizes.
They started a campaign with discussion on social media, a demonstration at the office of Plan International where a petition was sent with the demands.
More information is to be found on: https://www.ruskeattytot.fi/rakenteet/protectblackgirlstoo.
See more information on: www.sahwira-africa.org
Twitter: @sahwiraAfrica
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sahwiraafrica/
Other links:
DIN wholeheartedly supports this campaign and will help mobilize against the dehumanization of African people in Western media.
We call upon other organization to join the campaign of SahWira and offer their support for their campaign. More information: Faith Mkwesha, faithmk20@gmail.com, whatsapp: 00 35 45 66 888 75.