#MigrantHeroes Campaign
Guidelines for Field Missions

Keeping in mind the overall scope of the “Migrant’s Path Oral History Project” aiming at capturing the authentic voices of global migration for posterity and to showcase them as part of IOM’s 65th  anniversary (2016), IOM field missions are invited to identify, via the #MigrantHeroes Campaign, people who are willing to become public or who are already public figures and who have the capacity to advocate for migrants. Selected “Migrant Heroes” will become IOM Goodwill Ambassadors carrying a message of need to create positive environments for migrants, protect them and also ensure their place and contributions to our societies are recognized.

Process

  1. Nominate a contact person in your office who will be coordinating the campaign and liaising with IOM HQ (it should ideally be the Media Focal Point)
  2. Start brainstorming within your office on people originating from your country or who migrated to your country and who would ‘qualify’ as “Migrant Heroes” (see attached FAQ’s)
  3. Make a list of potential multipliers that could help you promoting the campaign in your country (academics, schools, journalists, art centers, etc.)
  4. Promote the campaign via your websites/newsletters/social media. Inform the general public that they can also submit Migrant Hero’s stories of someone they know, via the nomination form to be completed on the IOM #MigrantHeroes campaign website.
  5. Liaise with donors and national counterparts/partners to present the new campaign and ask them to support the campaign via their own websites/social media tools, ask them to help you identify “Migrant Heroes” by submitting compelling stories fitting with the criteria described in the FAQs
  6. Nominate your best “Migrant Hero Story of the Month” and share it with MCD, via the nomination form.
  7. Share other relevant stories received by your mission via your mission’s social media accounts (Facebook&Twitter), website and newsletter.
  8. Use the ‘dynamic calendar’ on the IOM #MigrantHeroes campaign website and fill it in with the nominated Migrant Heroes’ from your country
  9. Vote&invite the general public in your country to vote for the 3 best stories amongst the 10 nominated ones by IOM HQ via IOM Global Facebook #MigrantHeroes, from 1 to 10 November.

Tools

Please use the following tools extensively throughout the campaign:

  1. #MigrantHeroes campaign website: it already features some key famous migrants’ stories (Jasmine Lee, Cécile Kyenge…). You are kindly invited to send MCD additional content for this website, sending other stories to migrantheroescampaign@iom.int
  2. IOM Global Facebook Page #MigrantHeroes and Facebook Conversation #MigrantHeroes. You are kindly invited to share IOM Global Facebook #MigrantHeroes posts via your own mission’s account and create your own posts featuring key stories of your country. Ask your national partners to get engaged in the Facebook Conversation.
  3. IOM Global Twitter account. You are kindly invited to share IOM Tweets via your own mission’s account and create your own tweets featuring key stories of your country
  4. Field Mission’s social media
  5. Field Mission’s website: please regularly update your website with featured #MigrantHeroes stories
  6. Field Mission’s newsletter: make use of your national newsletter or partners’ newsletters to inform and give updates on the campaign
  7. Possibility to use the Community Response Map form for people to feed in names and countries of the heroes. With sender’s photo, bio, contact which could be validated by IOM and linked to a country.
  8. Campaign advertisement (A4 Info Sheet): please share this info sheet with  

Note: The Missions who do not currently have Facebook and/or Twitter accounts are kindly encouraged to start using these tools. Please contact editor@iom.int in order to create your account and to request additional social media guidance. 

Events

You are strongly encouraged to make use of migration-related events planned over the campaign duration in order to promote the campaign, whether these events are organized by IOM or national partners (festivals, artistic gatherings, sportive events, concerts,... ).

Budget 

No particular budget is foreseen to implement this campaign. Should you be willing to implement particular activities to promote the campaign, you are strongly encouraged to seek for extra funding via your traditional channels and via an enhanced use of the private sector. A specifically designed donor info sheet has been prepared for this purpose. IOM offices who wish to develop specific promotional tools are requested to firstly seek for MCD endorsement, contacting media@iom.int.