Starved for Attention aims to rewrite the story of malnutrition through a series of multimedia documentaries that seamlessly blend photography and video from some of the world's most accomplished and award-winning photojournalists. Our features today capture frontline stories of malnutrition from Bangladesh and India.

For her film Invisible, photojournalist Stephanie Sinclair turned her lens on a Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF ) program in Bihar state (India) which treats children at the epicenter of one of the world's malnutrition hotspots. These children descend from generations of a chronically undernourished population, where malnutrition is so pervasive, it is almost invisible.

The island of Bhola at the mouth of the Meghna River in southern Bangladesh suffers from one of the country's highest rates of severe acute malnutrition (SAM). In Terrifying Normalcy, photojournalist Ron Haviv documents the challenges of food insecurity, rapid climate change and poverty that make malnutrition so pervasive on this densely-populated island. In his intimate portraits, Haviv captures the resignation with which Bhola's malnourished mothers and children accept a chronically-meager food supply.

Stephanie Sinclair is an American photojournalist known for chronicling sensitive gender and human rights issues around the world. She contributes regularly to National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, TIME, Newsweek, Stern, German Geo and Marie Claire, among others.

Sinclair was recently awarded the Alexia Foundation Professional Grant, UNICEF's Photo of the Year and the Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism Freelens Award for her extensive work on the issues of child marriage. She also earned the 2008 CARE International Award for Humanitarian Reportage and the Overseas Press Club's Olivier Rebbot Award in 2009 for her essay on female circumcision in Indonesia.

Award-winning photojournalist Ron Haviv has produced some of the most important images of conflict and humanitarian crises since the end of the Cold War. A co-founder of VII, Haviv’s work is published by top magazines worldwide including: Fortune, The New York Times Magazine, Time, Vanity Fair, Paris Match and Stern. He has published two critically-acclaimed collections of his photography – Blood and Honey: A Balkan War Journal, and Afghanistan: On the Road to Kabul – and has contributed his wide-ranging body of work to several other books.

Most recently, he has documented wars in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as natural disasters in Haiti. His often-searing photographs have earned Haviv some of the highest accolades in photography, including awards from World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year, Overseas Press Club and the Leica Medal of Excellence.

Multimedia Exhibit-Ottawa Starved for Attention: The crisis of childhood malnutrition
Saint Paul University The Atrium, Guigues Hall 223 Main Street, Ottawa K1S 1C4
October 13-31 2010.
Public talk: October 13, 6:30-7:30 pm in the amphitheatre

The Brookings Institution Falk Auditorium
1775 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20036
October 12, 2010 Panel Discussion: 2-4pm

George Washington University
Jack Morton Auditorium, Media and Public Affairs Building 805 21st Street NW Washington, DC 20052
October 14, 2010 Panel Discussion and screening, 4:30-6pm with reception following.

Boston Public Library Rabb Lecture Hall
700 Boylston Street, Copley Square Boston, MA 02116
November 18, 2010 Panel Discussion and screening, 6-8pm

HELP REWRITE THE STORY OF MALNUTRITION.

- Sign the petition to support Doctors Without Border/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)'s efforts to demand that humanitarian food aid meets nutritional standards for infants and young children.

-Order a free action kit and organize a "Starved for Attention" event.

- Print out petitions and give them to your friends, family, co-workers and neighbors.

- Post our messages on Facebook and Twitter to help spread the word and create awareness.

Follow this link to learn more about the campaign: http://www.starvedforattention.org/take-action.php

Trailer:

Trailer:

• Starved for Attention website
  http://www.starvedforattention.org/
• VII Photo Agency Website
  http://www.viiphoto.com/
• Doctors Without Borders Website
  http://www.msf.org/

Learn more about malnutrition here.

Interview with Ron Haviv, Terrifying Normalcy

t21: What inspired you to make this particular film about Bangladesh for the Starved for Attention campaign?
RH: This film is one of series that is part of the Starved For Attention campaign that was done in partnership with VII and Doctors Without Borders.

t21: How did you meet the individuals and the programs that you portray in the film?
RH: I traveled in the region of Bhola which had a high number of malnourished children. I spent time with people in villages and people from NGOs that were attempting to alleviate malnutrition.

t21: Had you spent time in southern Bangladesh before making this film? If so, has it changed?
RH: This was my first time in Bangladesh.

t21: Favorite/most unexpected response to the film?
RH: Pleased that people are learning from it.

t21: What do you want viewers to take away from it?
RH: The statistic that 195 million children will suffer from malnutrition is such a large number that it's hard to fathom. By spending time with some of the children and seeing them in school, at play, at home, and understanding that we are all more alike then many of us think should help put a human face to that number.

t21: What did you learn about malnutrition in southern Bangladesh?
RH:  The most powerful concept that came across is that people feel that being malnourished is normal. That they and their parents and their grandparents all suffered from being hungry and that there is nothing abnormal about it.

t21: You talk about a “terrifying normalcy” that is present amongst the population in Bhola. How do you think individuals and organizations are working to change this reality?
RH:  Education on a village by village basis is one of the mainstays to attempting to fight malnourishment. NGOs such as Save the Children and Brac amongst others are creating community health workers that are responsible for groups of people. By teaching basic hygiene, breastfeeding and other issues that strengthen children, as well as accessible clinics where health workers and food supplements are available, the reality on the ground can change.

t21: How do you think documentary films and multimedia contribute to issue-based campaigns and the work of no-profits?
RH: Any way that ideas can be disseminated in order for people to understand and hopefully support good work can contribute to the success of nonprofits. Using mixed media is one way of reaching audiences around the world.

t21:Do you think the Starved for Attention campaign has been successful?
RH: The campaign has been and will be seen in many places around the world including capitals where decision makers reside. By helping educate people to a situation that many people did not know about before is a success.

t21:In terms of your own work, what is your intention and hope for what you are doing?
RH: My hope for this VII/MSF project is to have the issue become part of the dialog of people that can effect change on the ground. That means everyone - whether by a donation/a vote /a politician and policy - only good can come out of understanding what is happening around us.

t21: Are there any personal mottos you have that help you with your work?
RH:  Respect and dignity towards the subjects and the hope that telling their stories will make all our lives better.

Interview with Jason Cone, Communications Director, Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)

t21: Can you tell us about the initial idea behind the Starved for Attention campaign?
JC: Malnutrition is medical priority for MSF. We treat hundreds of thousands of children every year. Over the past few decades, the image of emaciated, fly-ridden children on the brink of death from famines and other catastrophe has come to define the visual representation of childhood malnutrition. And in this media-saturated world, flush with information documenting the daily toll of human suffering, it is understandable that a visual immunity has developed as a line of defense against this clichéd imagery provoking any kind of an emotional response to tackle the crisis of childhood malnutrition head on. It was in this context that we challenged VII to capture a new visual identity for malnutrition when Stephen Mayes, VII managing director, and Ron Haviv, VII founding member, met in late 2008. We had the strong experience of working together in Congo, and this offered another compelling opportunity for collaboration between VII and MSF.

t21: How did the partnership with the VII Photo Agency develop?
JC: I worked with Stephen Mayes and Ron Haviv to identify the other photographers in the agency that would join the project. We looked at the map of malnutrition hotspots around the world and began to focus on some key areas that we knew needed to be covered to accurately tell the story of childhood malnutrition. I did not want to focus solely on what MSF is doing to combat malnutrition. The crisis is much bigger than our organization’s response. There are other organizations and, more importantly, governments tackling the issue. This is what brought John Stanmeyer to mountains of Oaxaca state in Mexico to document the impact of the Progresa/Oportunidades program. And why we sent Ron to Bangladesh to look at how Save the Children was building a community-based approach to counter malnutrition in Barisal Division.

t21: How do you think documentary films and multimedia content contribute to issue-based campaigns?
JC: Storytelling remains essential to the ability of organizations to communicate about critical issues such as malnutrition. Even with the emergence of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media to rapidly exchange information, there is still the thirst for compelling and powerful visual stories. We have this massive statistic of 195 million malnourished children. What does it mean? How can I relate to such a figure? The only way to really begin to understand what this statistic means is to break down the number into its visual elements. This is where documentary and multimedia content is instrumental in turning indifference into action. At the same time, technology has lowered the barriers to entry so much that we are absolutely inundated with information on a daily basis. Practically, the only way you can compete in this environment is to muster incredibly talented visual artists like VII to break through the noise with powerful and compelling content.

t21: How did you decide the countries and specific stories to showcase as part of the campaign?
JC: We worked together with VII to identify the places to send the photographers. It was up to the photographers to find the stories. They worked alongside MSF teams in Djibouti, Burkina Faso, Congo, and India. In Mexico, the United States, and Bangladesh, the photographers were going after the story through other contacts and we really relied on them to find the images and footage that would bring the story home. At the same time, I see each film as a chapter in a book. With Marcus Bleasdale piece from Djibouti, you see through the eyes of an MSF team the frustration that no matter how many children they treat this crisis is so much bigger than the response of one organization. Then we go to Burkina Faso with Jessica Dimmock to see the malnutrition through the experience of one mother, and to Bangladesh and India with Ron Haviv, and Stephanie Sinclair, respectively, to the heart of the malnutrition crisis in South Asia, and then the war zones of Congo, and finally to Mexico and the United States, where we see how early childhood malnutrition has been virtually wiped out with national-level programs. You are taken through the entire experience of malnutrition from the different points of view – aid workers, local health officials, and parents – and geographic regions.

t21: What were the major challenges in the development of the campaign?
JC: Some of the major challenges were getting access to the areas, making the local contacts, especially in areas where MSF is not working. It was difficult for us to get Antonin Kratochvil to have access to the food aid factories and farms where the bulk of U.S. food aid is produced, and is the basis for his piece, The Double Standard. There were some difficult logistical issues in terms of getting John Stanmeyer into Oaxaca. It was a two-day trip from the state capital to reach the community where the Oportunidades clinics were operating. Jessica Dimmock spent a tremendous amount of time to tell the U.S. Standard in Pennsylvania about the WIC program. She spent weeks trying to gain the proximity to the mothers in this story given that there is so much stigma attached to poverty in the US.

t21: How did you decide the countries and specific stories to showcase as part of the campaign?
JC: I was asked by MSF to do it after we pitched ideas to them. But when we settled on this campaign it was easy to work out that it was a hugely worthwhile project

t21: Besides the website, you have been showing the Starved for Attention campaign in venues around the world. What has been the response to these exhibits?
JC: Besides the websites, there have been multimedia exhibits of the documentaries as well as still images slideshows in New York City, Toronto, and Milan. We are planning additional exhibits in the coming months in Washington, DC; France; Switzerland; Greece; Italy, Belgium; Canada; and the UK. The films are also being exhibited in several West African countries in the Sahel region, a major malnutrition hotspot. These showings will take the form of conventional museum exhibits along with presentations in major public spaces or even mobile trucks displaying the films. We recently created an “Action Kit” that allows the general public, students, and others to screen the films on their own and put on a Starved for Attention event to spread the word about malnutrition and join our international petition drive to rewrite food aid policy. The kit can be ordered at the Starved for Attention website here: http://www.starvedforattention.org/action-kits.php . We have also developed a free application available on the iTunes app store.

t21: How do the exhibits differ from and compliment the online component of the campaign?
JC: The exhibits give you the full visual impact of the stories with the large flat screens televisions that LG INFINIA donated for "Starved for Attention." It is a different experience from watching the films on your computer or mobile phone.

t21: Are there any related actions that will be organized around International World Hunger Day?
JC: We will be sending letters to government officials of the top food aid donor countries—such as the US, Canada, EU countries, Japan, and others – about the Starved for Attention campaign. We will have events in Washington, DC; Paris; Ottawa; Rome; and other cities around the world to draw attention to the crisis. We have also launched an appeal to people across the US to help us hold 500 Starved for Attention events using our Action Kit.

t21: What is the plan for the petition that is central to the campaign?
JC: We are planning to deliver the petition to government officials of the top food aid donor countries next year around the G-8 Summit. This summer our medical teams have treated hundreds of thousands of children for malnutrition in dozens of countries. We know the next malnutrition season, particularly in the Sahel region, is just around the corner. We absolutely need to see a stronger commitment of governments to supporting food aid that meets the nutritional needs of young children. Right now, the majority of food aid is composed of fortified blended flours that are not tailored to needs of young children. These products do not help children recover from malnutrition. Yet, they continue to be used in food aid programs around the world. There is no reason for this to continue when there are other products available today that are specially designed for children affected by malnutrition and the most successful malnutrition prevention programs are based on supporting mothers and children to get access to high quality foods.

t21: Has the campaign been successful?
JC: We have had a good start with media coverage worldwide, a number of successful events, and more than 30,000 petition signatures by end of September. The project has been featured in a number of photographic blogs, the PBS Need to Know television magazine program, Newsweek Japan, a host of Italian and French publications, Mint newspaper in India, among others. We are optimistic though that this is only the beginning.

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