This story was produced during ThreeSixty Journalism’s 2020 Digital Media Arts Camp, in partnership with the Center for Prevention at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota and Padilla. Health equity was the theme, with a focus on racism as a public health issue.
Over the course of ThreeSixty’s Digital Media Arts Camp, I had the opportunity to create a video story about Minneapolis-based organization The SEAD (Southeast Asian Diaspora) Project.
SEAD is an organization committed to uplifting and empowering Southeast Asian Diaspora communities through storytelling.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, SEAD has done a tremendous amount of work to support Southeast Asian communities in the Twin Cities, from distributing face masks and hand sanitizer to creating colorfully illustrated health messages in several languages.
The SEAD Project’s work also acknowledges the role of racism as a public health issue, which has been brought to light recently by the pandemic. SEAD has helped serve as a resource for Southeast Asians during the recent spike in racism against Asian Americans, and even more recently distributed translations of social justice terms during the Black Lives Matter protests.
While creating this story, I not only learned about the great work SEAD is doing, but also about the ability of one group to help a community in so many different ways.
SEAD’s work is important because it highlights and uplifts a unique and powerful set of voices, telling the story of the Southeast Asian diaspora up until the present day.
I am thankful to have had the opportunity to get to know about SEAD, and I hope my story does a good job presenting what I learned.
