The United Nations Department of Global Communications (DGC) promotes global awareness and United Nations paintings through its networked paintings of United Nations Information Centres (UNICs) around the world. The United Nations Information Centre in Rio de Janeiro is aimed at public premises in Brazil.
In the center of the state of Amazonas, young Brazilian communicators came up with a difficult idea: to teach COVID-19 prevention in a gentle and playful way to indigenous children. “I feel privileged to be part of anything that can have an effect on many people’s lives,” says Anderson Teles Marques, a 28-year-old video editor and photographer and member of the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB, in Portuguese).
The cartoon “Great Warriors” made through young people from other towns in Amazonas. Vera Tukano, a 23-year-old radio producer, says the idea is to spread the message that unity is the most effective antidote to the coronavirus. We set out to create this vision: we are a family, we are an organization fighting the same disease. “
The indigenous cultural elements used in the story, such as the language of the forest beings and ancestral elements, were very important for the young people to perceive how to protect themselves from disease. ” We’re going to make a cartoon for young people, so we can use a more user-friendly language that everyone can understand,” Anderson says.
The film is produced by Coiab in collaboration with UNICEF and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) and is part of the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon against COVID-19 (PIAAC) program.
“One of the most demanding situations was the Internet connection, because they (the young people) come from other parts of the Amazon,” Anderson says. Vera says that many colleagues did not participate in the discussions on the same topic. “Sometimes you can only access the web during the day and meetings will be held at night. “
Adding COVID-19 prevention measures to the script was also a complicated process. “Demanding situations affected things like masks, hand sanitizer, and vaccines in a way that didn’t break the immersion in the story,” Anderson says.
“You see, we’re not making these pictures to make ourselves feel better. That kind of traditional perception of what a benefactor is. We are making these paintings because we are completely convinced that it is not necessary, in today’s world, for so many other people. to enjoy the discomfort, for so many other people to enjoy the hardships, for so many other people to see their lives and livelihoods at risk. “
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