Mock-Documentary Vanderbilt Humanities 1610 Senior Project

/ Bringing awareness to a global refugee crisis to encourage local volunteerism.

TASK: As a final project for the HUM1610 course at Vanderbilt University, our class was tasked with developing a piece of work that would help shed light on the personal relevance of the current state of the world's humanitarian crisis. 

CREATIVE OUTPUT: In order to acknowledge the severity of the crisis and it's local impact, Marisa Goldstein, Grayson Meyers, and Lauren Safko co-produced a Mock-Documentary sharing the emotional journey of a young refugee fleeing from her home in Juba, South Sudan.

PROBLEM: In 2018, South Sudan was home to the fastest-growing humanitarian crisis in the world.

INSIGHT: Nashville plays a large role in Sudanese refugee relocation, but even the city's most educated communities have no idea that there are people in crisis in their backyard... Despite a prominent Nashville population of Sudanese refugees, Nashvillian Non-Profits' role in critical, lifesaving refugee relocation and readjustment initiatives goes largely unnoticed by the local community due to a stark lack of education.

APPROACH: This project served as an awareness campaign to shed light on the proximity and pertinence of severe humanitarian issues that many people in the region are ignorant of in an effort to encourage volunteerism. This video was then presented to the chancellor, local refugee-serving non-profit organizations, the Vanderbilt community, the sociology and social health department and professors, and a group of South Sudanese refugees who had experienced the journey to Nashville themselves.