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Dear colleagues, See below. All the best, Pat Dr Patricia Noxolo, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT UK ________________________________ From: Race & Ethnicity Study Group (BSA) List [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of [log in to unmask] [[log in to unmask]] Sent: 29 May 2018 12:40 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [BSA-RACE] Petition and action against Plan International Dear all (apologies for crossposting), I just wanted to let you know about the campaign that the Finland based NGO SahWira Africa International<https://sahwira-africa.org/?page_id=4&lang=en_US> led by Dr. Faith Mkwesha (researcher at University of Helsinki & Åbo Akademi University) are running against Plan International Finland. Last year, Plan Finland created a campaign<https://hasanpartners.fi/2017/08/13/maternity-clothes-12-year-olds-unveiled-child-pregnancy-campaign-plan-international-finland/> against child pregnancy and to do so, they had a Finnish designer (Paola Suhonen) create a line of clothing for pregnant children. Then they found a 12 year old Zambian child who is pregnant. They made her wear the pregnancy clothes (that they took back afterwards) and had a Finnish photographer (Meeri Koutaniemi) take pictures of her. The young girl and her family were not compensated for this. For this campaign, they produced romanticized pictures of child pregnancy (the designer herself in a video –now deleted by Plan- said how she created a line of romantic clothing) and made her pose in a sexually suggestive way in the manner of fashion photography. The aim of the photoshoot was to shock Finnish audiences so these images of a pregnant 12 year old African child were exposed and exhibited at bus stops, in the window of shops etc in Finland. Recently Plan received an ADCE Creative Distinction Award for this campaign. SahWira Africa International and allies got together and demonstrated in a silent protest in Helsinki a few weeks ago. Plan responded<https://plan.fi/vastauksemme> but refused to apologize, compensate the young girl and give back the award (which was what the protestors demanded). Last week, Plan met with SahWira and they did not respond positively to the demands. Therefore, SahWira created an online petition<https://www.change.org/p/plan-international-finland-protectblackgirlstoo-apologise-return-the-prizes-and-pay-her?recruiter=781943851&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=share_petition>. Today is the 4th day since the online petition has been created and it currently has about 1300 signatures. Dr Mkwesha is calling for people to sign and share the petition worldwide and for people to write to their national Plan International branch to point to the unethical nature of the campaign. The beginning of the campaign has been covered in Finnish<https://areena.yle.fi/1-4424191> media<https://areena.yle.fi/1-4424191> and Dr Mkwesha has written for Ruskeat Tytöt<https://www.ruskeattytot.fi/rakenteet/protectblackgirlstoo> (Brown Girls) and Migrant Tales<http://www.migranttales.net/plan-finland-campaign-using-a-pregnant-african-girl-for-all-the-wrong-reasons/> about it too. Several organisations including academic groups have showed support to the SahWira campaign by writing statements including RASTER<https://raster.fi/2018/05/06/its-time-to-challenge-white-saviour-mentality/>, the Society for the Study of Ethnic Relations and International Migration (ETMU)<https://etmu.fi/kannanotot/etmu-ry-osoittaa-tukensa-sahwira-africa-internationalille/> and the Finnish Society for Gender Studies (SUNS)<https://sukupuolentutkimus.fi/2018/05/15/kannanotto-aika-haastaa-valkoisen-pelastajan-asenne/>. Please feel free to share with your networks in solidarity, Best wishes, Anaïs Duong-Pedica PhD student Gender Studies/Minority Research Åbo Akademi University Email: [log in to unmask] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This Email list is maintained by the BSA Race & Ethnicity Study Group. Visit the BSA website for further information about the group: https://www.britsoc.co.uk/groups/study-groups/race-ethnicity-study-group/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** Please DO NOT REPLY to this message - unless it is for circulation to ALL list subscribers *** To reply to the sender of this message, use ONLY their email address, NOT the main list address. To post a NEW message to this list, email: [log in to unmask] (requires subscription) To unsubscribe from this list, email [log in to unmask], leave the Subject line blank, and in the message body write: UNSUBSCRIBE BSA-RACE-ETHNICITY