How a video campaign brought attention to a wartime crisis

As the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches, it’s a perfect time to recognize those who have stepped up to provide a helping hand to the most vulnerable people affected by the war: children.

The Emile Foundation, is a nonprofit organization whose stated aim is to support children in need worldwide. Following the escalation of the decade-long Russo-Ukrainian War following the February 2022 invasion, the foundation turned its focus toward relief efforts for children affected by the conflict. In addition to providing humanitarian aid including food, water, and medicine, Emile (formerly known as the Orphans Feeding Foundation ) worked closely with the Ukrainian authorities to identify the nearly 20,000 children illegally displaced by the war.

Emile conceived its “Stolen Voices” campaign to call attention to the issue and produced a video to visualize the scale and sense of urgency. The video, titled “Bring Kids Back UA”, earned Emilie a 2024 Ragan PR Daily Nonprofit Communications Award in the Best Video Category.

We caught up with Samuel Lambert, co-founder of the Emile Foundation to learn more about the campaign, the video, and coordinating the entire process with the President of Ukraine’s office.

Widening hope’s reach in the middle of war

Over a year after the war began, the president of Ukraine came to The Emile Foundation with a request: help highlight the plight of illegally displaced children. Emile was a perfect fit for the job, between their ethos of helping children no matter their situation and their location in The Hague, the home of the International Criminal Court.

“We told ourselves, ‘If we’ve got the resources, let’s do something bigger,‘” recalled Lambert. “The video allowed us to spread awareness internationally in a very visual, powerful way.”

The story of illegally displaced children did not initially gain international traction. “We realized that even though we’d been working on this since 2014, we weren’t really getting anywhere,” Lambert said. “The story needed to be told in a way that resonated beyond Ukraine.”

Harnessing the power of visual recognition

With the goal to draw international attention set, Emile got Dutch director Bram van Splunteren on board to direct the “Stolen Voices” campaign kickoff video. He produced a 70-second video that featured nearly 20,000 teddy bears in the seats of a Dutch football stadium, each one representing a misplaced child. The video also called attention to the devastation in Ukraine by showing it firsthand via football venues.

“The comparison between the broken stadium in Ukraine and the new one in the Netherlands forms a powerful visual element,” Lambert said.

As the camera panned to the sky toward the end of the video, drones spelled out a clear message for the viewer — “Bring Back the Kids”.

In addition to van Splunteren, Emile worked with acclaimed British DJ Fatboy Slim on the music for the video.

Pointing mass awareness to a humanitarian crisis

”Stolen Voices” found major success. It earned over 250,000 views on the foundation’s page following the initial launch, and this increased awareness also raised over €126,000.

Beyond the numbers, the video helped galvanize global support. This included plays across events in the United States, at Real Madrid football matches in Spain, and more.

“With donations and awareness around the world, this very short video made a big impact,” Lambert said.

To check out more Ragan award winners or to nominate a worthy person, organization, or campaign for one of our awards, click here.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.