To most people the Syrian crisis is laden with political significance.

We wanted to highlight personal tragedies so that people would relate on a human level rather than make a political judgement of the situation.

Lost Family Portraits sees twelve families from the Syrian refugee crisis pictured in the classic family photo style. Empty spaces and chairs are used to represent missing family members who have been lost during the conflict. The families were photographed at refugee camps in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, just nine kilometres from the border with Syria, with the Syrian mountains visible in the background. Each photograph reveals the desperate choices that families have been forced to make in order to reach safety.

A public exhibition was held in London and the press were invited. This was widely reported in the media, and the exhibition was then scheduled to travel to Italy.

Three press ads ran domestically in the following national newspapers with 8 insertions:

I-paper

Independent

Evening Standard

There was also double page editorial coverage in The Guardian

Online coverage in The Guardian, Daily Mail in Mail Online and Campaign Live. International coverage included CNN News, Buzzfeed, and La Republica among others.

Running throughout the campaign, people were invited to watch the online video, and to read each family’s heart-breaking story on the CAFOD website and social channels.

Our results were not measured through standard quantitative data - we had no specific "target number" as such to reach.

Our aim was to spread the word and more importantly, open peoples' eyes to the destruction and tragedies that were happening to innocent people. To make people consider what their family portrait may be like should they have been in the refugee's shoes.

Throughout the entire campaign, the consistent message was a call to the public for support by way of donations to CAFOD's Refugee Crisis Appeal.

The press coverage resulted in an increase in contributions but more importantly, a shift in attitude towards refugees.