UBELONG Cusco Research Expedition: Intro

Posted on November 9, 2011 by quimera

UBELONG co-founders and Expedition Leaders Cedric Hodgeman and Raul Roman led ten highly-qualified professionals through a rigorous research journey to understand the impact of international volunteers in the most popular volunteer destination in Latin America.

The team’s work was rooted in rigorous social science methods. The research design incorporated a variety of qualitative data collection tools, including structured and unstructured interviews and participant observation. With the support of Quimera, the team also used video ethnography to better understand stakeholder motivations, attitudes, perceptions and behaviors.

In addition to preparing UBELONG and the expedition team to use video in their research process Quimera worked with UBELONG to develop a “video report”, parallel in structure to the text-based report, documenting the research expedition as well as presenting key findings.

The video report, entitled “People to People” is divided into five chapters, this being the first.

UBELONG Cusco Research Expedition: Volunteering Environment

Posted on November 9, 2011 by quimera

Chapter 2 of UBELONG’s video report “People to People”.

UBELONG Cusco Research Expedition: Impact of Volunteering on Communities

Posted on November 9, 2011 by quimera

Chapter 3 of UBELONG’s video report “People to People”.

UBELONG Cusco Research Expedition: Impact on Volunteers

Posted on November 9, 2011 by quimera

Chapter 4 of UBELONG’s video report “People to People”.

UBELONG Research Expedition to Cusco: Final Thoughts

Posted on November 9, 2011 by quimera

Chapter 5 of UBELONG’s video report “People to People”.

Why a Video Report?

Posted on November 1, 2011 by quimera

NASTAD, the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors, undertook a qualitative study focusing on HIV/AIDS among Latino gay men in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Quimera worked with NASTAD to develop a video report, following the same structure as the text-based report, in which the three researchers use a roundtable format to discuss the project, the issues, and elaborate on key findings, challenges and constraints. The eight chapters of the video report can be found on NASTAD’s youtube channel.

Speaking to a camera, or speaking with an interviewer while being filmed, is not always a relaxing experience. This video report is a great example of how the roundtable format worked particularly well, where team members seemed comfortable with the camera, focused on each other, and discussed the material rather than any one individual worrying about being “in front of the camera”.

This video report was the first of its kind funded by the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health, and one of the first funded across all NIH.

The text report can be found at NASTAD’s website.

National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

Posted on August 12, 2011 by quimera

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Congresswoman Donna Christensen (D-V.I.) speak about the importance of increased awareness and education in honor of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (March 10). We developed the video for one of our clients, NASTAD, the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors. This marks the first in a webcast series for NASTAD looking at issues surrounding women and HIV/AIDS in this country.

Waste Pickers in India

Posted on August 12, 2011 by quimera

CHF International, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has been working with local partners in India to help promote improved working conditions and livelihoods for this marginalized group of people. By supporting local waste collectors CHF is helping create jobs, alleviate poverty, change the way the general public sees this group of workers and change the way waste collectors see themselves.

Quimera helped CHF plan the interviewing and production phase of the video project; filming was done with a local firm in India. Quimera then worked with CHF to edit over three hours of footage into this short overview piece.

Practical Research Methods in International Development @ SAIS

Posted on July 21, 2010 by quimera

Professor Raul Roman invited me to his class at SAIS (School for Advanced International Studies), Johns Hopkins University, to present and discuss our work with video in research and evaluation.

The in-class assignment consisted of a case-study about Build Change, an NGO that focuses on earthquake resistant construction, about to launch in Haiti. Students needed to develop a research and evaluation plan that integrated video.

Professor and Students… quite impressive. And we had a lot of fun.

Beneficiary Accountability

Posted on March 11, 2010 by quimera

This is a section from an M&E pilot we did with Red Cross Tsunami Recovery Program in southern Thailand. One of the purposes of the pilot was to deploy, explore and refine methods for integrating video and participatory-video into a monitoring and evaluation process, including beneficiaries as partners in the process.

Red Cross and I were selected to present the piece at the 2010 Chicago Ethnography Conference, Ethnography Going Public.

I was later invited by American Red Cross International Services onto one of their panels at the 2011 World Conference on Humanitarian Studies, Innovations Track, focusing on evidence-based program design. Someone at the Conference later blogged about the presentation and the potential for participatory video in disaster risk reduction.

Female Cutting

Posted on October 9, 2008 by quimera

Here’s an excerpt of a series we did for Pop Council’s Frontiers project. Maryam Sheikh Abdi spent a morning describing her project, the religious approach she developed as the basis to work against the practice of female cutting, and her own experiences.

Perspectives on the Private Sector in Public Health

Posted on January 10, 2008 by quimera

Here’s a short version of a piece we did for a USAID project, the Private Sector Partnerships Project-One (PSP-One). Public health experts discuss their experiences working with the private sector.

Interesting comment about the video and distinctions between different forms of private sector involvement in public health found at Foreign Policy Association Blog.

Stakeholder Inclusion

Posted on October 10, 2007 by quimera

Participants speak to the importance of youth participation in the design, management, implementation and evaluation of youth-focused programs. This clip comes from the UNFPA African Youth Alliance M&E Video Report. Filming was done by in-country youth teams. Editing and support provided by Quimera.

GSA Office of Applied Science

Posted on June 11, 2007 by quimera

After finishing up one of our projects with Kevin and the Workplace Program we decided to do some impromptu interviews around GSA headquarters. This is the opening segment to the video.

Risotto

Posted on April 11, 2007 by quimera

Opening segment to the “Taste of Risotto” cooking lesson with Todd Gray. We thought a bit of “man on the street” in DC would be a great addition… and it was. Margaret was fantastic.

A Taste of Equinox

Posted on March 30, 2007 by quimera

Our concepts apply to restaurants and with a great interest in the culinary arts we wanted to add that industry to our portfolio.

Global Health Council

Posted on March 19, 2007 by quimera

After being trained to interview and use video cameras at the 2004 Conference the team offers their perceptions.

United Nations Population Fund

Posted on March 19, 2007 by quimera

Discusses video as a tool in African Youth Alliance Monitoring and Evaluation Report.

Field footage produced by in-country youth teams, web-based support and editing by Quimera.

Arthur Andersen

Posted on March 19, 2007 by quimera

While piloting participatory video methodologies the video documents organizational change at a professional services firm one year after move-in to a radically different environment.

All footage captured by the employees of the firm.

Latin American Youth Center, Washington, DC

Posted on March 19, 2007 by quimera

Reports on project, strategy, creation of the team’s training video, community training, and experiences. A “The Making Of” project video.

United Nations Population Fund; Global Youth Partnership

Posted on March 19, 2007 by quimera

Introduces the project and team filmed during week-long meeting; used in advocacy, marketing, fundraising and partnership development; companion to the in-depth meeting proceedings video.