The Kickstarter that never happened... (yet)

This is the Kickstarter project that never happened. YET! I say "yet" because the project is still on my lifelong "to do" list. The video below and this website all happened thanks to a UO journalism student who interviewed me and made them for a class assignment. At the time, I was still teaching art in the schools and had just completed my first mural for Madagascar with a 4th grade in Eugene. If you have no idea what project I'm talking about, watch the video and/or click the link above. 

The video was made last Spring. That following Summer, I was in Madagascar for a totally unrelated short-term job. While I was there, I asked the Director of Population Services International in an urban center of Northern Madagascar, (Diego-Suarez/Antsiranana) if they would be willing to help distribute and install the cloth murals around to rural villages when they go out to do their health presentations. The Director was beyond stoked on the idea, and agreed to help me whenever I could make more health murals with U.S. students and mail them over to him. I was of course, beyond stoked as well.

Presenting my project idea (in Malagasy of course ;)

This means that the project would go like this:

1.) I go into a school and teach a week(ish) long workshop about Madagascar to K-12 students. We learn about the country, and also do art projects relating to it. We also learn about mural-making, and make a mural together that visually explains a health issue (such as the care of mosquito nets, and/or the importance of using them to protect against Malaria).

2.) The mural (on cloth) gets shipped to the Director of PSI that I spoke with last Summer. He gets his Malagasy health professionals/presenters to bring the mural out with them when they go out to rural villages to do their presentations to communities. They install the mural (with the community's approval) on a wall somewhere in the village (hopefully at a clinic/hospital). This feels good because it is Malagasy people doing all the talking to other Malagasy people, and just using our mural as a visual aid for their presentations/reminder for after they leave. And on our end, I'm helping expose American kids to another country they might not have known much about before.

3.) Repeat steps 1-2.

Someday, I will do this again. And again. Posting this blog so I don't lose my momentum, or let this one slip through the cracks while I'm busy focusing on my JOB job, and mural business. Not letting it go!