Adoption is a taboo in the Arab world. It is not talked about openly. Homecentre believes that every kid deserves a home, including orphan kids. We were tasked to open a conversation on adoption and invite people to adopt or foster. The main aim of UNSEEN TEARS was to make adoption an accepted practice in the Arab world and make it a part of regular conversation.

Tears can express what words cannot. To tell the painful stories of orphan kids who often remain unnoticed, we used their dried tears. Each tear has a different topography that reveals the emotion behind them. The dried tears of the kids were photographed under a microscope and classified as tears of longing, tears of separation, tears of loss, and so on. Each tear revealed a story that was hidden from the world, inviting people to open their hearts and their homes to orphan kids.

Adoption is not discussed openly in the Arab world by anyone, so our target audience was everyone. Mainly newlywed couples, existing parents, and those families that could afford to bring in and look after another kid.

We wanted to move the target audience through the stories of the orphan kids. So, we invited them to a photography exhibition like no other. When they came to know the story behind the photographs displayed, they were shocked and surprised. The stories of the orphan kids touched them and inspired them to look at adoption and fostering from a different perspective.

Over the course of multiple sessions with expert child therapists – with complete awareness about the purpose and consent of the child – the tears of orphaned children were collected IF they got emotional while narrating their story. After an 8-hour crystallisation process, their topography was photographed under a microscope with a special camera. Each tear’s topography revealed a different kind of emotion behind it. These photographs and the stories of the kids were put together in a book called UNSEEN TEARS. The book’s look and feel drew inspiration from the flow of the tears, the blotchy effect of a teardrop, the intensity of the different emotions that led to the tears, and so on. The photographs of the tears were turned into giant posters to give people a closer and deeper look at the stories of the orphan kids. They were also turned into digital images and social media

The campaign earned media impressions worth $230,000. Around 12,000+ people visited the exhibition in the first week. The website got more than 30,000 unique visitors. But the biggest impact was that 3 kids were adopted as a direct result of Unseen Tears.