GSIF Post 5

  1. List ten things that make you feel human. 

 

  1. A morning routine – every day I spend at least an hour by myself getting ready. This is extremely important to me because I have days where this is my only hour of relaxation. So, I like to start my day by “becoming” a human and drinking my coffee while listening to music as I slowly wake up.
  2. Exercise – This also an act of self-care, but I really like intense forms of exercise. I have played competitive soccer almost all my life and I am a mountaineer. I find that when I push my limits physically I understand how far I can go and appreciate all that my body can do.
  3. Compassion – nothing makes me feel more human than socializing and empathizing. I just think that part of being a human is being around other humans- it’s how we were built. In being able to relate to others, you find more of yourself.
  4. Complete Isolation – As much as I love people, I also love being by myself. Giving myself space to just “be” helps me explore my thoughts and emotions more. Sometimes the world is a very busy place for me and I need to process in order to maintain myself despite the fluctuations around me.
  5. ART – First of all, art is the most human creation there has ever been. Art is an outlet of expression for humanity. It is how we make the darkest stories bearable to share and how we connect across lines that typically divide. I find that art makes me feel human by connecting me to the humanity of others. 
  6. Getting sleep – I have never taken for granted the impact of a good night’s sleep. I need enough sleep in order to feel human – I learned this the hard way in high school when I had insomnia. That experience made me irate and anxious, so now I never compromise my eight-hour sleep requirement.
  7. A nutritious diet – I was brought up to believe that what you put into your body deeply affects how you feel on the day-to-day. I have the privilege to access healthy, unprocessed food options and eat well-rounded meals. This ability gives me the opportunity to feel more human – I try to eat as organic as possible on a college student budget. 
  8. Authentic choice – Honestly, this is something that I don’t even have yet. This is one of those ideals I like to keep in mind when picking from the options I am given in life. Most of the choices we make are allotted to us by the powers that be, and it is easy to accept what is given as “freedom.” So, in order to be human one must be in touch with what they really want and unafraid to make a choice that is not advertised to them. 
  9. Accepting contradiction – Being a human means that we are not a binary creature. Often, I have beliefs that contradict one another and I feel conflicted in my beliefs. I find that by accepting contradiction is in my nature, I am validated to explore the two values as coexisting ideas instead of combative principles. This gives me more freedom of thought because it allows me to see the world as more complex than black and white.
  10. Pursuing joy – As cliche as it is, this statement repeats for a reason. Feeling human is really hard to live with sometimes, it can be an experience filled with pitfalls and pain. However, joy is something I find breeds resilience in life. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu put it, “Yet as we discover more joy, we can face suffering in a way that ennobles rather than embitters. We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreak without being broken.”

 

  1. Articulate your philosophy of engagement as it pertains to your work with the GSIF / LVSIF. Specifically, discuss 1. Why should I engage? 2. How must I engage? 3. With whom must I engage? 4. What kinds of challenges, opportunities, and approaches should I care about? 5. What might my epitaph read?

 

When thinking about the reasons behind my work and the motives that have brought me to this opportunity, it is very important that I take into account my past circumstances and the philosophies I was raised in. I was raised in an environment that sought out truths – my mother is a journalist and my father is an accountant. Most of my mother’s work involved finding moral discrepancies in her environment while my father seeks to create numerical models for sustaining a comfortable life. 

Here at Lehigh, I incorporate these lessons my parents taught me and I think I bring many of their ideas to GSIF with a twist of my own. This fellowship gives me the opportunity to tell a story, and the coverage we are doing involves institutions as well as individuals. This lets me interact with people and gain a compassionate understanding of my project but gives me the opportunity to look at the maternal mortality crisis through an institutional perspective. I can balance empathy and analytics in my approach. To me, the Mothers of Sierra Leone project provides the opportunity to use art to engage with a community in a meaningful and measurable way. 

Right now, my level of engagement is relatively low – I am focused on my project but I don’t have as much awareness about the place quite yet. So, I try to supplement myself with outside readings to learn more about Sierra Leone – from politics and health journals to watching interview footage. But reading can only take me so far. When I get there I would like to think in questions and talk to anyone willing around me. I find that the best method of engagement (for me) is through conversational learning. I am a people person so the more people I interact with, the more I will learn.

I deeply care about collaborating with subjects and giving them autonomy in my films. I have been taught that ethical films tell the most accurate stories because they give a voice to the subject on and off-screen. Filmmaking is a very meticulous craft and small creative choices compound into a larger narrative. So, I like to ask my subjects for advice throughout the whole process. Overall, my philosophy is to balance the facts and the feelings while giving my subjects an empowering platform to use.

Blog Post 4

1)Based on your life experience, skills and interests what would a design process that is both uniquely yours and effective look like?

 

Our team comes from a  very right brain background – we contain three filmmakers and a marketing major. This conglomeration of thought is primarily creative and artistic, and occasionally unorganized. However, that means that we are a team that thinks big picture and figures out how to follow through to achieve our goals. We complement our strengths through our collaborative process and we communicate our plans so we know what each person is doing every step of the way. So, in terms of design process we would list out our steps as this:

  1. Brainstorm
  2. Research
  3. Organize
  4. Pitch
  5. Validation
  6. Design
  7. Delivery 

 

2) *Identify your three most important stakeholders and list five UNIQUE attributes for each one of them.

 

  1. The mothers of Sierra Leone
    1. Muslim or Christian 
    2. In need of medical care during and after pregnancy
    3. Subjugated gender of the country
    4. Reserved about talking to us
    5. Not accustomed to Western medicine 
  2. Makeni Midwifery School
    1. Improving healthcare in Sierra Leone through direct training
    2. Students work towards Nursing Association Certificate
    3. Graduates about 100 midwives per year
    4. Located in rural Sierra Leone
    5. Since 2010 the school has graduated almost 500 midwives
  3. Surgical School
    1. Trying to incorporate Western medicine 
    2. Improving healthcare in Sierra Leone
    3. Students work towards Surgical Assistant Community Health Officer certificate
    4. Students train to complete life saving surgeries
    5. After training the students go to regional hospitals where they can perform their own surgeries 
    6. Contributes to 25% of all surgeries in Sierra Leone.

 

  1. *Identify three ways in which you will validate your project concept, technology, usability, and business model.

 

We will validate our project by using a media impact evaluation model. 

 

We will first validate our project by determining how many people we reached, that is how many people viewed our film. For every person who has viewed our film or been exposed to it in some capacity, our documentary message gets distributed. When the stories we portray get distributed, people talk about our documentary and spread the word about the cause we are representing. 

 

Second, we will validate our project evaluating audience engagement. This evaluation is a continuation of the number of people we have reached. After people have been exposed to the film, we are looking for our audience to respond positively to our film. A positive response would be one of empathy and a need to take action. This would be shown through reposting our video on other networks, sharing our video link, and donating funds to the organizations we represent. 

 

Lastly, we will validate our project through its influence factor. A positive influence would show changes in the communities our film is shown in. For example, more women would apply to attend midwifery school. A positive influence would also exhibit changes in attitude towards the issue of maternal mortality. For instance, this could be Sierra Leoneans building a stronger trust with Western medicine.

4. Give three examples of something very interesting you
learned from a friend that was a completely alien concept to
you.

Recently, I was out on a hike with a friend. As we were walking down the trail we began to talk about anything and everything – the changing weather, the differences between the coasts, and all of the strange mysteries on this planet. During our walk, he brought up something completely new to me – oceans in ur ocean. Apparently, there is a deep-sea phenomenon where brine lakes form under the ocean because they have higher salinity levels than the surrounding water. The brine lakes hold thousands of small creatures and fish dive into the lake to eat them. However, they must dart quickly because the lake is poisonous to them and can cause as much harm as it can sustain their livelihood. 

 

Another fun little tidbit of knowledge I learned recently was how Walmart has a monopoly on gas prices in Arkansas because they sell the cheapest gas. Apparently, they can afford to have a very low price because they are such a large entity. So, they undercharge and get the most customers, while their competitors cannot afford to lower their prices as drastically.

Another concept I have been introduced to recently is how to collect data. I have an internship with the Bethlehem School District, and I have been tasked with creating a method to collect data that can reinforce our claim regarding the lack of digital access within the community. I have always been interested in the process of education reform, but I have never realized that it required such a scientific approach. So, I am learning how to create a data collection structure in the community so we can gain a more accurate understanding of the problem. I have started this a week ago and my supervisor has been pushing me to consider every point of access – language, location, and target demographic. This is an entirely new experience in regards to policymaking, and I am learning a lot on the go.

 

 

Logic Model and Priority Questions

Top 20:

  1. Do people want us to impact their lives?
  2. Who are we catering to?
  3. Should we follow social politics or be accurate? 
  4. Will this go beyond Sierra Leone?
  5. What are the quantitative measurements of our success?
  6. Will our impact be sustainable?
  7. How will we know how many lives this impacts?
  8. Where will our financial proceeds go?
  9. How do we distribute our project?
  10.  Will generating film success (i.e. festival awards) make an impact?
  11. How do we accurately make a film without offending Sierra Leonians?
  12. When are we done?
  13. How do get men in Sierra Leone to care about our mission?
  14. How do we make our impact last after we leave?
  15. How do we craft a positive narrative around a health crisis?
  16. What is our timeline?
  17. How many subjects will our film focus on?
  18. How many solutions are we trying to highlight?
  19. Will our impact be positive or negative?
  20.  How will we maintain and foster mutual respect between our subjects and our film?

 

Input Output Outcome Stakeholders
  • Time
  • Camera and Sound Equipment
  • Relationships with Subjects
  • Research
  • Community Partnerships
  • More people going to clinics and hospitals
  • Views on film
  • Increase in nurses, doctors, and midwives
  • Number of screenings/Number of (film festivals, the African Narrative)places screened
  • Proceeds Generated towards community partners
  • More medical resources
  • PR
  • Lower maternal mortality rate
  • More funded healthcare system
  • More trust between community and western medicine
  • Go viral→ “media impact is demonstrated when people are talking about the issue of the film even when they have not seen the film.” 
  • Midwifery
  • Mothers in Sierra Leone
  • Surgical School