12/07/2021
Mark Gärtner joined the Knowledge Transfer lecture series this week to share on the topic of NGO communication. Mark Gärtner, based in Saxony, is doing research and communications for NGOs and initiatives, among them the Saxon Refugee Council (Sächsischer Flüchtlingsrat.) Gärtner’s work with Saxon Refugee Council started in 2016 and has included a number of learnings that he was so generous as to share with the course attendees. Gärtner presented on a number of topics, including deportations, refugee camps and consequences for an NGO, focusing on the communication challenges and strategies he and the team have used over their time serving on the Refugee Council.
Gärtner’s work included sharing the stories of refugees who were facing deportation and family separation in order to draw public attention and create pressure to change Saxony policies regarding refugees. In addition to sharing the emotional stories, the Refugee Council began publishing statistics and documenting cases, which provided press and journalists with concrete information to report on and created accountability and awareness where there was none before. The team generated more knowledge, like legal reviews, on the laws and regulations that are connected to deportation. The Council sought to create alliances. In 2019, the Refugee Council succeeding in creating a coalition among several political parties in 2019 after the Saxon state elections in which the parties agreed upon several points that might protect refugees. This work included an alliance with refugee councils in other German states which generated even more awareness for discriminatory policies toward refugee camps during the COVID situation, which resulted in pushing the spokesperson for Mrs Angela Merkel, Steffen Seibert, to answer for these policies and make changes for the safety of camp residents. Gärtner shared about the role agenda-setting plays in the strategies and victories of the Council and the power of public awareness and pressure can have to bring about positive, empowering change.
Of particular interest was the learnings that Gärtner shared about some of the less successful communication strategies his team produced while they were still inexperienced in the field. He spoke of the implications of some questionable information and advice for refugees published in an early pamphlet about avoiding deportations, and the resulting PR clean-up that needed to be done as a result of this publication. Trust plays a pivotal role in NGO communication, both between press and politicians as well as the general public, and although negative public attention can be a successful strategy in some cases, it became clear from Gärtner’s experiences the crucial importance of maintaining this trust.
In the question and answer section of the lecture, many attendees had the chance to dive deeper into some of the topics. Students asked after Gärtner’s personal views on the ethical implications of telling the emotional stories of refugees in camps and those actively undergoing the deportation process in such a public way. Gärtner also shared his overall assessment of traditional mass media vs. new media, and why collaboration with traditional journalists remains crucial to spreading a message, and a burgeoning new relationship between journalists and NGOs as the institution of journalism shrinks. Gärtner ended the session with advice for new communication strategists working in NGOs: Share your resources, share your knowledge, and stay teachable and open to new ideas and approaches.
Mr. Gärtner recently resigned as co-executive director of Saxon Refugee Council but continues to serve as a volunteer. This resignation is a direct result of lobbying work and pressure the Council has sought in an ongoing situation in Chemnitz to stop illegal apartment searches of refugees. In asking the city of Chemnitz to address and change their search policies, the Refugee Council’s budget has been cut, resulting in the loss of the social workers department, and the budget no longer supports two executive directors. Mr. Gärtner has volunteered to resign his position and continue to work on the rights for refugees in a voluntary capacity, and has widened the scope of his work, including a podcast on deportations called ‘So Nicht Bestellt”.
We thank Mr. Gärtner for his time with the Knowledge Transfer course and look forward to meeting him and the Saxon Refugee Council again in the future to continue the practice of knowledge sharing between academia and communication professionals.
You can learn more about the work of the Saxon Refugee Council at their website: https://www.saechsischer-fluechtlingsrat.de/en/
As well as following them on Twitter:
And on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saxfrev
You can find more information on Mr. Gärtner’s podcast "So Nicht Bestellt” here: https://www.facebook.com/sonichtbestellt
So Nicht Bestellt, Sächsischer Flüchtlingsrat e.V., International Office - University of Erfurt
