UBELONG Cusco Research Expedition: Intro

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. Most of the footage from the field was taken by Raul Roman on a handheld video cam.

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

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

UBELONG Cusco Research Expedition: Impact of Volunteering on Communities

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

UBELONG Cusco Research Expedition: Impact on Volunteers

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

UBELONG Research Expedition to Cusco: Final Thoughts

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

Why a Video Report?

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.

Arthur Andersen

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.