This past Sunday we successfully held our first Look Out Loud Photovoice Exhibition in Pune, a large city about 5 hours away from Jamkhed and CRHP! After a night of mounting photos and preparing stories on Friday with the help of our Photovoice elves (Aparna, Mandana, and Mattie) Annie, Maggie, and I packed up and went ahead of the group to Pune on Saturday morning in order to see the exhibition space and start transforming the Open Space office into an art gallery. We put up the participants' photographs with the help of our couch surfing friends and we were able to get everything up and ready in just a few hours. It was awesome to see everything coming together in such a short amount of time- quite the whirlwind! Everything was looking great and we couldn't wait to see the space filled with Photovoice participants and gallery-goers!
On Sunday, the caravan from Jamkhed made it to the venue at Open Space early to help with the finishing touches and finally see all of their photographs and stories printed, mounted and displayed before the crowds came at 3. To our delight, we had four different news stations reporting on the event! The kids and VHWs felt extra professional being interviewed, filmed, and photographed by people other than Maggie and me. You can check out one of the pieces , a (95% accurate) news article, written for the Pune Mirror!
All in all, around 70 people came through to see the exhibit- a turnout we were really excited about. We got to see just how far social media can carry an event, as many of the people that showed up found out through a friend of a friend. It was incredible to see the kids from Kusedgaon and VHWs talking with the diverse crowd that showed up and share their stories together.
It is crazy to think that such different worlds (Pune and Jamkhed) exist only five hours away from one another. I think the most inspiring aspect of the whole event was that it provided a platform for so many different people to connect, converse, and learn from each other.
In an effort to create more dialogue between everyone we placed sticky notes around the space, asking participants and viewers alike to share their thoughts, questions and comments by sticking them up by the photos. From the responses it seemed as though people were very moved and inspired by the experience.
In an effort to create more dialogue between everyone we placed sticky notes around the space, asking participants and viewers alike to share their thoughts, questions and comments by sticking them up by the photos. From the responses it seemed as though people were very moved and inspired by the experience.
At the end of the night, Annie, Maggie and I were floured by the success of the event. We left Open Space feeling humbled, fulfilled and infused with the energies of everyone who came to share the space. We can't say enough thanks to everyone you helped play a part: Open Space, The Comprehensive Rural Health Project, our Kickstarter Backers, the people of Pune who came out to support and everyone around the world who has been cheering us on. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
With Look Out Loud: Jamkhed coming to a close, Maggie and I look forward to our next project in the Philippines! We are SO sad to say goodbye to Annie, who will be staying in India to finish up her fellowship here at CRHP but are excited to connect our participants from the Philippines and Guatemala with our family here at CRHP.
Meagan and Maggie
With Look Out Loud: Jamkhed coming to a close, Maggie and I look forward to our next project in the Philippines! We are SO sad to say goodbye to Annie, who will be staying in India to finish up her fellowship here at CRHP but are excited to connect our participants from the Philippines and Guatemala with our family here at CRHP.
Meagan and Maggie
