We're still collecting donations
On the 16th September 2019 we'd raised £1,581 with 37 supporters in 56 days. But as every pound matters, we're continuing to collect donations from supporters.
Giving marginalised long term and life-limiting health conditions a voice, through co-produced short films with students.
by Mr. Babz in Manchester, England, United Kingdom
On the 16th September 2019 we'd raised £1,581 with 37 supporters in 56 days. But as every pound matters, we're continuing to collect donations from supporters.
We are looking to raise money to support the pre production sessions of our next wave of short film workshops in schools this academic year (2019/20), giving voice to marginalised health conditions and its sufferers.
The Silent Elephant Project is run by Freshrb C.I.C. - A video production social enterprise based in Manchester that primarily use video production to raise the awareness of health themes, whilst running video production workshops with young people and individuals with life limiting/long term conditions.
I (Babz) was diagnosed with cancer in 2009 in my final year at the University of Liverpool and just like anyone who is told they have cancer, I was in shock and my life's narrative forever changed. I thought cancer only affect elderly people, but I was wrong.
Kondwani, who is the co-director of Freshrb, was diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) in his final year at the University of Leeds. In his case, he knew nothing about this life limiting illness and so the same stance point of shock was felt. - Meet Kondwani
For both our cases, our ability to cope with these 'life changing' conditions would have been better if we had prior basic knowledge of them. Off the back of these experiences, the Silent Elephant Project (SEP) was conceived.
‘An elephant in the room’ is an English-language metaphorical idiom for an obvious problem no one wants to discuss, or a condition no one wants to challenge. This phrase has coined the main objective of the Silent Elephant Project – Giving marginalised life limiting and long-term health conditions, that do not get discussed, a platform through creative and interactive projects. The SEP is unique, as it acts as double edged sword tackling loneliness in the community both for those involved in the cohorts and wider public that come in contact with the project deliverables. All this is done with the purpose of building a bridge between research and engagement.
My experience with creative workshops during/post my chemotherapy treatments developed the idea to design a creative way of empowering and engaging young people/students with short film co-productions linked with health themes.
We take 6 students through a 4 months process (the equivalent of a school term) where the students/participants go through 13 sessions covering all the production stages in short film making.
From our 2 previous pilot workshops, we have realised that bringing factual conditions/health themes into fictional storylines encourages research amongst students and young people. Both for those who take part in the production of the short films and those who watch the short films. We take the students through the major three stages of production (Pre-Production, Production and Post-Production) teaching them not only practical media and research skills but creative and life skills that fall in line with the 'Gatsby Benchmark' and Ofsted Priorities.
Cllr Hannah Priest (Charlestown Ward) - "This short film was made by students at Co-op Academy North Manchester for the Silent Elephant Project, run by Freshrb C I C . The film is intended to raise awareness of ME and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and the students were involved in every aspect of the film-making process. They also got an accredited qualification at the end of the course. I think it's a great film, and I'm very proud of the students who took part in the project."
Kondwani is one of the co-directors of Freshrb, who suffers from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). Watch a real life video testimonial as he answers some questions people ask about his involvement in executing the SEP workshops.
The need is simple, to date we have received interests from over 30+ schools and communities in just the Greater Manchester region for this service but our resource levels cannot keep up with this demand. We need to scale the team and train more supervisor in order to meet this demand. This is why we are here.
In addition to this, in The Directory of Life-Limiting Conditions is a list of nearly four hundred diseases that can limit life in children (Hain and Devins, Cardiff, 2011). Most of these conditions are not even spoken about, a few on this exhaustive list are as follows -
Taylor's Shadow Amazon Prime Link (Miscarriage)
Why ME YouTube Link (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis)
In the next academic year 2019/2020, We are looking to offer 5 schools/academies/colleges in the Greater Manchester Region these short film workshops.
For academic year 2020/2021, We are looking to offer 10 schools/academies/colleges in the Greater Manchester Region these short film workshops.
For academic year 2021/2022, We are looking to offer 20 schools/academies/colleges in the Northwest Region these short film workshops.
The money raised will go into the following:
AND WE CANNOT MAKE THIS HAPPEN WITHOUT YOU, OUR PARTNERS!
Please also support us by spreading this widely across your social media platforms and tag us.
Facebook/Twitter/instagram @FreshrbCIC
This project offered rewards