Refugee Phones is a politically and religiously independent organisation that helps refugees to stay in touch with their families by offering donated Smartphones with new sim-cards when they arrive in their new country. But all too often, this is not enough to reach loved ones back home. In Syria the phone connections can be really bad and the electricity can be off for days, making it impossible to charge a phone. Also, many Syrians don´t even have a phone. In the worst case, this means that your relatives back home might not even know if you´re alive or not.

This radio advert together with other similar, turned commercial radio in Syria into a personal media for Syrian refugees who have fled the country because of the war. The ads are recorded greetings from Syrian refugees in Sweden, recordings that were re-packaged into commercial radio spots and broadcasted on radio, all over Syria. Making it possible for Syrian refugees to reach out beyond the boundries of war by re-inventing the use of radio.

March 21st is Mothers Day in Syria. On this day we made it possible for Syrian refugees to contact their mothers in Syria.

We invited them to record messages containing a mothers day greeting by calling our Mothers Day Hotline. The Hotline was communicated directly to newly arrived refugees by posters, and on relevant social media groups and information sites targeted at refugees. And the messages started dropping in. For obvious reasons commercial radio in Syria is on a decline. So, we managed to buy media space from the Syrian radio station Fuse Fm, an independent station also popular among the target group, Syrian moms. A lot of media space. We re-packaged and produced our Mother´s day greetings as ”radio-ads” for commercial radio. Over 150 radio spots were then broadcasted in the commercial breaks on Syrian Mother´s Day, and the entire week leading up to it. On radio. In Syria.