Challenge Colorism Campaign
Fundraiser and Campaign organizer
I am a Youth Advisor working with STRIPED (a Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Initiative) who have crafted a new e-course for Health Professionals in India (and perhaps globally). These professionals work to educate adolescents and young adults who then go on to inform young consumers of the physical and mental health risks of using products that exploit Colorism for profit.
An endemic problem that we have faced for decades is fundamental racism, which has manifested itself in many ways and at many levels. Unfortunately, in most of our societies, we haven’t moved beyond how we are judged based on the color of our skin. Unfortunately, this also happens to people within same races as well, and while it seems more subtle, it is tremendously damaging to our society. This is referred to as “Colorism” and it causes mental health issues, physical health problems, social discord and sometimes results in tragedies, particularly suicide.
Research shows that education through visual imagery and storytelling is an impactful and effective community engagement tool.
To achieve a greater impact through the e-learning platform, I have proposed to create an animated, multi-media element to supplement the teaching case for this new e-course. The animation videos would enhance the teaching coursework to be more interactive, comprehensible and therefore, effective for the target audience. This would complement the course messaging: the need for young girls to understand that they can be happy with their skin tone, resist commentary or social pressure to alter shade of their skin, and that they should not pursue the use of dangerous creams and other damaging actions.
In order to do this I have raised £10,000 to produce the animated narrative within the e-course. These will be professionally produced in partnership with the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health STRIPED in Boston and Medical Aid Films in London, where I live and study. Please support this very worthwhile project; lots of young adults around the world will benefit from this.
For more information on this project and some of the technical aspects of what we are undertaking, please read further, below. Thank you in advance for your kindness, empathy and generosity!
For more information on this project, please feel free to reach out to:
Anisa S. Bhandari OR Dr. Bryn Austin (Professor, Dept. of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health) and Director of STRIPED.
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