Brothers Across Borders places the viewer inside the journey of Ismael, a young Syrian refugee searching for his brother across Syria and Turkey. Produced with Laban Stories and coordinated by the Danish Red Cross, it was built to make displacement tangible — especially for students.
Approach
The experience lets participants send messages as they move through Ismael’s story, turning abstract headlines into personal choices. It is a project I often come back to: it continues to flourish long after launch, a reminder that communication does not always have a time limit, and that educational work like this can keep delivering value for many years.
Outcome
Latest usage figures show 48,520 messages sent through the experience, from participants in 83 countries — on average 5.2 messages per participant. 2025 became a record year with 9,407 messages, the most active since launch. Usage is strongest in the USA (32.6%), Denmark (11.6%), Canada (8.2%), Australia (5.6%) and the UK (3.7%), with Sydney, Calgary, Copenhagen, Melbourne and Auckland among the top cities. Feedback from classrooms keeps arriving: a preservice teacher in Sydney ran it with a Year 8 class who “loved it”; participants in Canada wrote about Mohammed in a Greek refugee camp, unable to return to Turkey; another message reads, “Mom, I am very sorry that I decided to stay here instead of returning to Syria… I think that if I stayed here, it would be easier for you guys to come here.” The project won a Digital Communication Award in 2019 and remains part of a wider Red Cross collaboration that later extended into If War Comes to You.
Gallery
Partners
IFRC and 15 Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, coordinated by Danish Red Cross
Awards
- Digital Communication Awards 2019 — Winner