During and after the 2003 Ebola outbreak in the Republic of Congo, several media organizations put together news pieces and film projects about the virus, its threat on both the gorilla and human population, and what the implications were for biodiversity and global health. None of these reports and films were shown locally or translated into the local language.
New conservation strategies are needed to integrate issues of biodiversity with public health outreach. INCEF combines these issues with the power of moving images and sound, providing locally-produced videos geared featuring local people speaking in their own words.
To disseminate these films, teams of African education specialists are traveling from village to village, school to school,
reaching areas where people have historically killed and
eaten gorillas.
Studies have shown that
community outreach and public awareness can change attitudes
and behavior. In one case, primate consumption decreased by
80%. INCEF hopes that by working with local people to tell
the personal stories of those affected by the epidemic—by
giving people the scientific facts of virus transmission in
a manner they can relate to—they will be able to change
behavior in the region.
As one scientist put it,
"when it comes to emergent disease, we are all local
people."
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