TRENDING ๐ฅ๏ปฟ
Amnesty International Day (28th May, 2021)
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
(Film) Over the Wall ๐ต๐ธ๐ฎ๐ฑ
Two young boys - one Israeli and one Palestinian - meet over a ball, along the border wall between Israel and the Gaza Strip. The boys form a fast friendship around their shared interests and desire for play. The quote by management thinker, Peter Drucker, is a reminder of how kids can show adults that they have more in common than they think, when they spend time together.
The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said.
-Peter Drucker
(Film) WAR & GRACE - Winner - Health for All Film Festival ๐ธ๐ธ
One of the winners of the Health for All Film Festival by the World Health Organization (WHO) was WAR & GRACE in the nurse and midwife category.
WAR & GRACE celebrates the courageous midwives, led by midwife and teacher, Grace Lisio. Grace fights for mothers and infants in war-torn South Sudan, which has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. She launched a school initiative that trains more midwives. Despite many challenges, she says:
The outcome of the students we have trained has motivated me so much.
According to one midwife student, Scovia Jua Mude Manash:
As a midwife, your role is to take care of a woman since from the day she got pregnant until the day she delivers and six weeks after delivery. ... If I'm the one who conducted the delivery, my baby is saved, and the mother is saved, I myself will be happier than the woman who gave birth.
The training school has graduated 209 midwives to date. With support from International Medical Corps, three schools in South Sudan have increased the community and number of qualified midwives by 2,242%. To make a donation to Grace and International Medical Corps, click here.
How colorism haunts dark-skinned immigrant communities
What does it mean to be black and dark-skinned in America? Colorism is the prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group. Studies show that people with lighter complexions earn more, are less likely to be arrested, and if convicted serve lighter sentences than dark-skinned people.
Amira Adawe is the founder and executive director of The Beautywell Project. It addresses colorism within Asian and African cultures. Whiteness remains the global beauty standard reinforced by the multi-billion dollar business of skin-lightening products.
Beautywell partnered with the Minnesota Department of Health that warned about skin-lightening creams that were tested and found to contain mercury. A petition campaign with the Sierra Club that got 25,000 signatures resulted in Amazon removing the products. Sociologist Margaret Hunter says:
There are definitely signs of hopefulness, but it's not a quick fix. Colorism is connected to the much larger system of racism, and it won't go away until racism is also gone.
TOOLS ๐ ๏ธ โ๏ธ
Live alone? This personal safety service changed my life ๐
People who live alone in one-person households is at an all-time high today in industrialized countries. In 2019, single-person households in the US and Canada accounted for 28% of the population while in Norway and Sweden, it was nearly half of all households.
Kitestring is a discreet safe call digital service for people who live alone. This "peace of mind" service allows someone who is home alone or out on their own to set it up so you receive a text to check that you're ok. If you don't respond within a certain amount of time, it will text your emergency contacts. Here's one example of the different ways the service is used:
โHi, this is Hilary via Kitestring, a personal safety service. I am currently out on a walk at [location] on [name of the trail]. I was scheduled to be finished at [time]. If youโve received this message, it means Iโve been inactive on my phone and something could be wrong.โ
The service allows three check-ins per month for free. The unlimited plan is $3 per month. For people who live alone or spend more time alone, especially during the pandemic, Kitestring puts your self-care first and helps others not have to worry about what might happen to you.
POP CULTURE ๐ฅ๐ต๐ฎ
How one graphic novel looks at Anti-Asian hate ๐ฅ
Canadian artist and author, Aminder Dhaliwal, who lives in L.A, published her graphic novel, โCyclopedia Exotica". It's an Anti-Asian hate novel showcasing one-eyed characters who are undervalued in society and who experience microaggressions, discrimination and racism. She turned her comic posts on Instagram, which has 250k followers into a book. She thinks the message of animation for kids is:
Be true to yourself. But I think that can be really hard to swallow when the world has punished you so often for being who you are.
The current climate of anti-Asian hate resonates with Dhaliwal as she recalls how she felt growing up as a kid post 9/11:
I remember after 9/11, and for the next 10 or 15 years, it just sucked having brown skin. It seemed like every offhand joke was about being a terrorist. And then you get this odd experience where youโre like, finally, the Eye of Sauron turns to another group, and your first reaction is like, phew, weโre out of it, the eyeโs not on us anymore! When instead, we should be thinking: No one should ever feel like this.
NOTABLE PEOPLE๐ ๐๐๏ธ
โItโs become a movement:โ Trudeau meets with volunteers behind Vaccine Hunters Canada ๐ ๐จ๐ฆ
Vaccine Hunters Canada helps Canadians navigate the COVID-19 vaccine booking system and share information about open appointments. It was founded by Andrew Young and consists of three other volunteers, Joshua Kalpin, Jonathan Clodman, and Sabrina Craig, who all have day jobs.
Sabrina Craig, a director with Vaccine Hunters, said:
Many Canadians are excited for vaccines but face obstacles in accessing them. Digital tools provide a platform for collaboration and information sharing, helping people overcome these obstacles. By working together, and sharing why, where and when to get immunized, we can help get more Canadians vaccinated sooner.
One recent success is a partnership with Vaccine Hunters and the Thorncliffe Park community in Toronto, where over 10,000 people were vaccinated in a single day. Kalpin in an interview with Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau said:
The most important thing that any Canadian can be doing right now, besides following public health measures, is to get your vaccine done.
Watching the full interview with the Vaccine Hunters team and Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, one gets the feeling that this small initiative that started slowly has accelerated into a nationwide movement helping Canadians get vaccinated as the country moves a step closer to herd immunity. Kudos to these four awesome Canadians. Many have called them heroes. We agree!
LASTLY ๐ โ โน๏ธ
CFP News profiles people who collaborate on cool stuff impacting communities. Archive issues can be read here.
Flavian DeLima founded Collaborate for Purpose. Besides the newsletter ๐ง, we have a podcast ๐๏ธ and run kitchen table conversation events๐ฅ.
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Hey Friend,
Welcome to Issue #9. The theme of this newsletter is creativity. National Creativity Day happened in the U.S. on May 30th. It's really something we can do everyday.
Twyla Tharp, the great American dancer, and choreographer, who is 79, works just as hard today as she ever did in her 60-year career. She was featured in the April newsletter after her new PBS released her new documentary, Twyla Moves. She says creativity is for everyone and is mostly about hard work and developing good work habits. In her book, The Creative Habit, she has no shortage of zinger quotes:
The folks behind The Second City improvisational theater troupe view collaboration as an "ensemble" and want you to steer clear of the word, "team". In their book, "Yes, And", Kelly Leonard and Tom Yorton recommend answering every question with "Yes, And...".
The "Yes, And" attitude requests that you replace all the teams in your organization with an ensemble. Sheldon Patinkin, who was a director and teacher at The Second City for more than fifty years didn't like the word, teams. He often told his students one reason organizations have problems was because they used the word, teams, in a way that pitted people against each other:
Patinkin changed it to an ensemble-friendly statement:
Teams feel adversarial while ensembles are collaborative. The best creative ideas, comedy, and workplace cultures that follow a "Yes, Any" attitude are more inventive, more engaged and more effective in solving problems. Instead of immediately criticizing or killing an idea, "Yes, And" always starts by giving every idea a chance.
The next time you want to make someone wrong, think of your team as an ensemble. Surrender judgment and your need to be right. People will be happier, more creative and collaborative. And you'll make more friends!
Stay safe. Stay sane. Get vaccinated.
Flavian
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CFP News is a weekly roundup of the best links on how people collaborate, create social impact and build community. An online version is here and archives are here.