How Comic Strips Are Helping Save Lives In The Central African Republic

We don’t often hear about the power of comic strips for social good. But the creative form is being used in the Central African Republic (CAR) to raise awareness about the country's conflict and to help share information about navigating daily life and survival. 

There is just a small group of comic-book artists in CAR, where aid organizations and United Nations agencies hire artists to produce work on a variety of topics. These range from sexual violence, security, sanitation, wound treatment, health services, and how to turn in weapons, all published on posters, leaflets, and billboards.

In this NPR article by Cassandra Vinograd, one of these comic book artists, Didier Kassai, discusses how comics can transmit a message and influence future generations.

"The work I'm doing now is to raise awareness. The most important thing is to recount what is happening in CAR … If we don't do this work, tell the stories, our children won't understand and they will suffer another violence."

According to the United Nations, the situation in the country is dire. Conflict originally broke out in 2013, but violence has recently increased, causing the number of displaced civilians to spike at 694,000 in February this year, with more than half the population needing urgent humanitarian assistance. CAR currently ranks last on the world development index and adult literacy rate is just 36.8 percent.