Place of Change is a unique community-led media health project that encourages participants to consider key factors that affect their health and wellbeing on a personal level. OUCRU has partnered with Fact and Fiction Films (FFF) to equip communities with skills to generate their own film stories about their health experiences.
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The project had four workshops based around pertinent health issues: HIV positive intravenous drug users; professional sex workers with STIs; a community in the malaria endemic border province of Binh Phuoc and duck farmers in the Mekong delta. Between 5-12 individuals in each group worked with FFF and facilitators to film and narrate their personal stories.
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The community-authored stories have been reviewed with local government health workers and research groups to generate discussion and raise awareness of community perceptions, attitudes and knowledge. In an extension phase the short films will be shown at local screenings, facilitated to generate discussion and sharing of information. We believe the project empowers communities and helps improve the public understanding of health sciences, while increasing researchers and health worker’s engagement with their communities of study.