When the cholera epidemic struck Haiti in October 2010, we quickly began working on a film that would educate people as to how cholera is transmitted, how people could protect themselves from the disease, and what steps to take if they did get sick. Our goal was to convey reliable information with simple visual messages that could be widely understood. While our initial interest was to help save lives in Haiti, we designed the film so that it could be useful on a global scale—to fight cholera whenever and wherever it became a threat.
The animator of the film is acclaimed Israeli animator Yoni Goodman, one of the creators of the Oscar-nominated animation Waltz with Bashir. Much of the drawing and background music are complete and we are now adding narration.
The story of cholera is told through the eyes of a young boy who watches his father become very sick from cholera, and then helps others in his village learn how to protect themselves. The animation will be narrated in English, Haitian Creole, and several other languages so that it can be utilized globally.
The video will be available for free on our website and formatted for smartphone use to ensure easy and widespread dissemination. With this instructional animation piece, Global Health Media Project is excited about taking its first steps in realizing its vital mission of providing effective clinical videos to health workers in low-resource settings.