Volunteer measures blood pressure at grandmother. Grandmother holds the woman's child in her arms. They are sitting at a table near the window.

HEALTH EDUCATION IN HUMANITARIAN CONFLICT ZONES

Empowering the public and healthcare workers to save lives and reduce suffering

The Problem

The United Nations Refugee Agency reports that “more than 100 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes globally.” Refugees and displaced populations may not be able to visit health providers or get medicines, medical supplies, laboratory tests and other life-sustaining health services due to distance, safety, language, policy or financial barriers. Humanitarian relief efforts have an enormous impact for many; however, these efforts are limited by geographical, financial, and logistical constraints, leaving many without aid.

Our Solution

Ariadne Labs and partners envision a scalable solution that moves beyond traditional humanitarian avenues to empower the public to save lives and reduce suffering through equitable, open access education. 

For more than 50 years, public education on life-saving techniques, such as CPR, has successfully prepared the public to provide aid in emergency situations. We see an opportunity to empower individuals living in areas of conflict to save lives and reduce suffering by teaming with community trust brokers in local communities to develop, produce, and amplify educational videos.

At the start of the war in Ukraine, emergency medicine physician, Eric Goralnick, MD, MS, and a team at Mass General Brigham developed novel, open access online videos to educate the public on bleeding control techniques, care for traumatic injuries, and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear preparedness. The videos have reached more than 1.2 million viewers in Ukraine and have been highlighted in The Washington Post, BBC News, and other media outlets. 

As the war in Ukraine passes the one-year mark, a partnership of non-governmental organizations and academic public health experts has created a new series of 26 online educational videos to empower all Ukrainians—the public, healthcare workers, medics, firefighters and law enforcement—with the critical skills to save lives.

Ariadne Labs, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Medical Corps, and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative now seek to further scale this work to reach new populations and cover new health topics, while developing measurement and evaluation tools that will build on current social media metrics to better assess impact and demonstrate how watching a video moves from information to action and helps save lives.  To achieve these goals, we will:

Produce 45 Educational Videos over 3 Years
in 3 Regions with  Humanitarian Conflicts
We will leverage Ariadne Labs’ expertise in human-centered design to convene leaders in education, medicine, community, and digital media to identify topics for which education can reduce preventable morbidity and mortality. Using  an iterative process, we will develop culturally relevant scripts and ultimately shoot and produce short, open access videos. 
Develop Novel Measurement and Evaluation Tools to Understand and
Improve Impact 
Employing Ariadne Labs’ expertise in implementation, improvement science, and analytics, we will use traditional measurement tools and create novel tools to measure and evaluate the efficacy and impact of the videos. 

The Opportunity to Support Our Work

We are seeking partners to assist with ideation, implementation and scaling, in-kind resources and funding. If you are interested in learning more or becoming a partner, please contact Margaret Ben-Or at mbenor@ariadnelabs.org.


Our Partners

UNHCR

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights, and building a better future for people forced to flee their homes because of conflict and persecution. We deliver life-saving assistance such as shelter, food and water, help safeguard fundamental human rights, and develop solutions that ensure people have a safe place to call home. We work in over 130 countries, using our expertise to protect and care for millions of people. 

INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS 

A preeminent first responder, International Medical Corps provides emergency relief to those struck by conflict, disaster and disease—no matter where they are, no matter what the conditions—working with them to recover, rebuild, and gain the skills and tools required for self-reliance. As conditions ease, International Medical Corps trains people in their communities, providing them the skills needed to recover, chart their own path to self-reliance and become effective First Responders themselves.

THE HARVARD HUMANITARIAN INITIATIVE 

Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) is an interfaculty Harvard University initiative dedicated to advancing research, practice, and policy in the field of humanitarian assistance. HHI’s mission is to relieve human suffering in war and disaster by advancing the science and practice of humanitarian response worldwide.

ELEMENT PRODUCTIONS

ELEMENT Productions is a full service video production company creating content for distribution across all media platforms. For nearly 25 years, they’ve brought together award-winning strategy, creative, design, casting, production and post-production talent to tell authentic stories and elevate brands by delivering premium quality video with unparalleled production value. Whether it’s documentary films, original television programs, broadcast commercials, web videos or social channel assets, ELEMENT brings ideas from the page to the screen.