“PENCIL OF HOPE”

Turning children’s traumatized memories into a hopeful future.

We created a digital pencil that can change the traumatized drawings the Syrian children drew. On the UNICEF “PENCIL OF HOPE” site, participants can draw over the tragic drawings in the UNICEF BLUE color and turn it into a more positive one using your finger or mouse. And share it onto your social media to spread awareness.

After they are redrawn, the selected pictures are printed onto blankets and educational notebooks, which are sent to the Syrian children in refugee camps to actually use, and for the traumatized children to be able to see a more hopeful future.

First we launched a special UNICEF website, ”PENCIL OF HOPE.” Here you can see the Syrian children’s traumatized pictures and redraw over them into a more hopeful one using a special digital pencil.

Your finger will become a blue pencil, possible on a PC or on smartphones.

After the participant redraws a new picture, how they redrew the picture and the steps and strokes they took will be shown as a GIF animation which can be shared onto their social media, raising awareness and donation to support UNICEF programs in Syria.

Selected new drawings are also printed onto blankets and education notebooks and sent back to the children in refugee camps. Helping to heal the children with new hope and a new future.

Despite the serious controversy and strong opposition toward Syrians, “PENCIL OF HOPE” could drive attention away from political conflicts and make people think about what is happening to a whole generation in Syria.

The campaign just launched in Hungary in April, but newly redrawn pictures are submitted everyday from around the world.

Though this started from UNICEF Hungary, other UNICEF offices like Lebanon, Germany and Turkey also empathized with “PENCIL OF HOPE” and cooperated with UNICEF Hungary in implementing the communication.

The selected new drawings are printed on blankets and education notebooks and sent back to the children in refugee camps in Syria to give them hope.

And in the end, children and adults around the world all learned that there is only a thin line between despair and hope.

We used drawings from Syrian refugee children and turned it into a powerful brand message for UNICEF, involving participants in an innovative way.

By not only showcasing the children’s drawings, but also interacting with people around the world to participate in creating a user generated content by digitally drawing over it, and change how the Syrian children could perceive the future.

The original drawing itself is powerful, but by using creativity in a way that will challenge the participant, the UNICEF message is amplified and creates a greater social impact online.

The question was, “Can we change how Syrian children see the future, by changing how they see the past?”

We have learned through the relationship with UNICEF that the Syrian children draw extremely explicit pictures of what they have actually witnessed and experienced. These drawings are disturbing, horrifying and at the same time powerful because they are true.

Our strategy was to use these real drawings and show it to the world, so there will be more people who understand the tragic situation happening with the Syrian children. But we also wanted the viewers to take part in the healing process and not become bystanders. So we decided to create a simple digital platform that could allow you to.

It has been 5 years since the civil war broke out in Syria, with never ending military and political battles covering global news headlines.

The war is causing innocent children to suffer the consequences.

Over 3 million children were born in the Syrian war zone in the past 5 years.

These children are our next generation, but what future can they see when all they know is the bombings, killings and no peace?

The horrors of losing their homes, families and friends are the memories the children have. This can easily be seen in their traumatized drawings.

UNICEF wanted to save the Syrian children from losing all hope, and also to create awareness of the situation happening to them.