Activists use Pokémon Go to highlight the plight of Syrian children

(Image credit: Hassan Jarrah/Getty Images)

published 23 July 2016

Some 3.7 million Syrian children have been born into war in their native land, but activists are using Pokémon Go to draw international attention to their plight.

The Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office (RFS) is sharing images of Syrian kids surrounded by chaos and violence — plus Pokémon. The images allude to the fact that you have to physically go to a new location to capture each monster, urging viewers to likewise come help.

"People on social media talk about Pokémon all the time, so I created these images to draw attention to suffering during the war and what Syrians are really searching for," said Saif Aldeen Tahhan, a graphic designer who has shared mockups of Syria Go, in which users would search for basic necessities like food and shelter instead of fantastic creatures. "I can tell you, the Syrian people are not looking for Pokémon."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox