LONDON: A video about Batman visiting a refugee camp has been named best fundraising film after a charity appeal featuring singer Ed Sheeran was branded the worst for its exploitative “poverty tourism.”
The video produced for charity War Child Holland shows the Caped Crusader running around a dusty refugee camp in Lebanon with an eight-year-old Syrian boy, Kadar.
The pair play football, have a game of hide and seek, arm wrestle and fly a kite. The soundtrack is “You’re My Best Friend” by rock band Queen.
At the end Batman transforms into the boy’s father, who is fleeing the war with his family.
“Fantasy is often the only way for children in war to escape their reality,” the film says.
The video was named winner of the 2017 Radi-Aid Golden Radiator Award on Friday.
The prize recognizes charity videos that get away from stereotypical messages about poverty and that depict their subjects as more than passive recipients of aid.
“What a powerful video!” the judges said. “One thing this video did a really good job of was showing the kid as a kid.”
War Child aims to protect children caught up in conflicts, give them an education, and equip them with skills for the future.
The annual Radi-Aid Awards were started by the Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ International Assistance Fund (SAIH).
The name comes from a spoof music video they made in 2012, called “Radi-Aid: Africa For Norway” which appealed for Africans to donate radiators to freezing Norwegians.
Earlier this week SAIH awarded its Rusty Radiator Award to a charity appeal for Comic Relief fronted by Sheeran.
They said Sheeran’s video about street children in Liberia was too focused on the singer, and his offer to temporarily house several homeless children in a hotel was “irresponsible.”
Appeals by British actors Tom Hardy and Eddie Redmayne for the UK’s Disasters Emergencies Committee were also shortlisted for the Rusty Radiator Award.
Watch the video below:
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Batman befriends Syrian boy: refugee video named best charity ad
Batman befriends Syrian boy: refugee video named best charity ad
Syria begins circulating new post-Assad currency bills
- Presidential decree said new Syrian currency will be issued by removing two zeros from the nominal value of the old currency
- Central Bank govenor says Syrians can now exchange old Syrian pounds with new banknotes
DAMASCUS, Syria: Syria started the process of circulating new currency bills on Saturday as the nation seeks to stabilize the economy as it recovers from the fall of Bashar Assad’s government.
A decree issued earlier this week by President Ahmad Al-Sharaa said that “old Syrian currency” will be gradually withdrawn from circulation according to a timetable set by the central bank and through designated exchange centers.
Central Bank Governor Mokhles Nazer posted on X that after months of preparations, the exchange of old Syrian pounds with new banknotes officially began Saturday morning.
The presidential decree posted on the SANA state news agency stipulates that “new Syrian currency” will be issued by removing two zeros from the nominal value of the old currency. It means every 100 Syrian pounds of the old currency will now equate to one Syrian pound.
The largest denomination of the old currency was 5,000 Syrian pound, while under the new currency it is 500 pounds.
The US dollar was selling at exchange shops in Damascus on Saturday for 11,800 pounds for the old banknotes, some of which bear the images of Assad and his late father and predecessor, Hafez Assad.
At the start of Syria’s conflict in mid-March 2011, the US dollar was worth 47 Syrian pounds.
Since insurgent groups led by Al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham marched into Damascus in December 2024 to end the Assad family’s 54-year rule, work has been ongoing by the country’s new authorities to improve the economy battered by years of war and Western sanctions.
The US and the European Union have removed most of the sanctions imposed on Syria during Assad’s rule.
A decree issued earlier this week by President Ahmad Al-Sharaa said that “old Syrian currency” will be gradually withdrawn from circulation according to a timetable set by the central bank and through designated exchange centers.
Central Bank Governor Mokhles Nazer posted on X that after months of preparations, the exchange of old Syrian pounds with new banknotes officially began Saturday morning.
The presidential decree posted on the SANA state news agency stipulates that “new Syrian currency” will be issued by removing two zeros from the nominal value of the old currency. It means every 100 Syrian pounds of the old currency will now equate to one Syrian pound.
The largest denomination of the old currency was 5,000 Syrian pound, while under the new currency it is 500 pounds.
The US dollar was selling at exchange shops in Damascus on Saturday for 11,800 pounds for the old banknotes, some of which bear the images of Assad and his late father and predecessor, Hafez Assad.
At the start of Syria’s conflict in mid-March 2011, the US dollar was worth 47 Syrian pounds.
Since insurgent groups led by Al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham marched into Damascus in December 2024 to end the Assad family’s 54-year rule, work has been ongoing by the country’s new authorities to improve the economy battered by years of war and Western sanctions.
The US and the European Union have removed most of the sanctions imposed on Syria during Assad’s rule.
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