See What’s Out There

Danny and a crew and our client from the American Jewish World Service got back recently from shooting in Uganda. This shoot followed shoots in India and El Salvador where we documented the amazing work that AJWS is doing on the ground in these countries. We are all very excited to see the media products that will be developed from this material - of which there will be many. Here’s a few photos from the Uganda trip so you can see why we are excited. You will notice a shot of a river. This is the Nile up at its source, and where the crew took their day off to go rafting. You can also see the puddle-jumper they flew in to get around the country. And you can see how beautiful the people are.

It was two years ago today that a massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean created a tidal wave, a tsunami, that killed more than 230,000 people, left millions homeless and heartbroken, instantly created thousands of orphans and destroyed whole communities. Two years later, tens of thousands of people are still living in tents, communities that relied on tourism are fighting for their survival and many people are trying to live with emotional and physical scars that will never heal.

For all the outpouring of support after the tsunami, there is still a lot of work to do. Some of the money funneled to governments and large organizations was not efficiently used and local corruption has taken its toll on getting money where it is needed. And, there is just a huge amount of continuing need.

Consider making an end-of-the-year donation to the American Jewish World Service in support of those communities impacted by the tsunami. AJWS puts their money on the ground with small organizations working directly with the people. These organizations are not on the radar of big philanthropists or NGOs. AJWS also leverages their grants with volunteers. The combination of human and financial resources is the best possible strategy for making a difference.

As one tsunami survivor said, “The waves of compassion that followed are much more powerful than the waves of destruction.” Let’s hope so.

Danny and the team are back from India. Other than falling down the stairs in Bombay and having to get stitches, he seems OK. They said it was intense, interesting and they have an enhanced appreciation for the amazing work that the American Jewish World Service does. We have 20 tapes and a lot of work ahead of us on this project. As we start going through the video we will post some things. Stay tuned.

We’re in India. Actually, I’m not. But our Executive Producer, Danny Alpert, is there with our top camera/sound crew. The trip is for the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) and they will be traveling all around India to document AJWS’s work on the ground. This is the first of several trips that will also take us to Africa and Central America.

In India, almost two years after the tsunami hit, there is still rebuilding to do. Not just rebuilding of property, but social and community building as well. And while AJWS has responded to the tsunami through support of long-term rebuilding efforts, their mission is much broader than disaster response. AJWS works in other parts of India, helping empower women and fighting poverty. They make grants to support grassroots programs and they have a well-developed volunteer corp that places senior professionals in NGOs for 3-12 months. The combination of money and skill multiplies the impact of either alone. AJWS also knows that advocacy and education are important for social change – there is only so much you can do with only so much grant money. AJWS is advocating for action both in the US and abroad to address the kinds of structural or legal issues only government action can solve. (For example, they are leading the way to pressure the UN and US on Darfur.)

So, our office has been abuzz with activity in preparation for the trip and now we are waiting for the first reports from the team on the ground. I hope we will be able to upload some short raw footage to the blog here while they are still in India.

Here’s some samples from the itinerary. Go to the AJWS site to learn more about their work in these places.

Tamil Nadu
25th
Late night arrival in Chennai. Stay at airport hotel

26th
Morning: Fly to Tiruvananthapuram,
Afternoon: drive to Nagercoil

27th
Location: Nagercoil

Setting: teaching tribal nursing students.
Classroom setting teaching English
Film interview with volunteers at end of day

28th
Morning: Drive to Thirukadayur (5-6 hours) Arrive @ 1pm

General Notes about work in Thirukadayur
- Peak of Monsoon season, it is going to be raining for the majority of the time we are in the Tamil region.

29th
Morning: ROSE – disaster response drill #1
- Actual Drill takes 30- 45 min
- 5 groups to follow (warning group, evacuation group, first aid group)

Setting: Oceanside, 50-60 people. Lots of motion, chaos – people carrying stretchers, running back and forth from the ocean, sitting in first aid section, etc.

30th
Morning: ROSE
Afternoon: Drive to Chennai (5hrs.)

1st
Early morning – drive to Chennai airport
Fly to Bombay
Arrive in Bombay at 11pm

Maharashtra at 2pm
Full sun 7-10am - 5pm

Morning: Udaan (10-3)
Setting: Discussion with support group members, interview about HIV status…
Late Afternoon: Fly to Vadodara leave at 3:30 flight at 5pm arrive 7pm
- World Aids Day

We have just been awarded a project from the American Jewish World Service to help them document their work. They are a great organization and you can take this opportunity, right now, and donate online.

They have been leaders on the issue of genocide in Darfur. For many of us, this is a Jewish issue. If “never again” is to mean anything, then we have to act. We can’t say we didn’t know, we didn’t see. We know.

We believe in the power of visual storytelling and there was a photo on this subject in the New York Times today that is striking. It is not showing murdered families or burnt villages, but rather the rich and the unconcerned in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, hanging out in their fancy clothes and cars, a mere 600 miles from the death and destruction of Darfur. They can do this because they have oil. And they can do this because our government has made a deal with the devil.

Several people have asked me, or have written on blogs, about the need and potential for DoGooderTV when we have YouTube. I just want to share what we are thinking about here on this subject.

First, YouTube is great. Free hosting, free embedding, not much in terms of advertising. (YouTube will get more commercial and you will begin to see a lot more advertising on the site - it has to make back its $1.6 billion price tag.) But what’s not to like? I think any nonprofit with a video should stick it into their organizational channel on YouTube. There is no downside really, except maybe negative comments from the community – but that’s the entrance fee to social networking.
But lets face the facts. Even if you’re video is pretty good, you’re no LonelyGirl15. Or Stewie. Or William Shatner’s interpretation of “Rocket Man”. Can your video compete with Betty White roasting William Shatner? Or Captain Kirk farting? (Notice a theme?)

There are about 8 million videos on YouTube and it is growing by at least 60,000 per day. So saying that you added something to YouTube is like saying you added a website to the internet. If you don’t have something extremely viral, or make an investment in marketing it (something we manage for clients at See3), then you are unlikely to see much benefit.

DoGooderTV, unlike YouTube, is being built as a social video community around issues and organizations. In addition to the hosting benefits of YouTube, we will provide organizations with access to a community of people who are talking and reading and sharing and discussing issues from Darfur to King Tut. We will give these folks, and organizations, a platform to organize, educate and raise money. To use marketing language, we will provide qualified leads - from an organization’s point of view.

I am reminded of being back in my venture capital days when people would say about any software project… “Couldn’t Microsoft just do that?” Well, yeah. But they won’t do everything. And they won’t do everything well. In the social networking space, MySpace is king. But YouTube came along and built a social networking site (which is really what it is) around video. And LinkedIn built a social networking site around business, and Facebook around college students, and so on and so on. So…stay tuned. In the next month we will be releasing a lot more info about the progress and launch schedule for DoGooderTV. And… if you know about good nonprofit video, let us know because we want it up and online at launch time (which is after breakfast.)