Project Update - Good News to Share

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Wow we have some very good news to share!

It's all due to all of you 've reached out and supported our this project through our thin summer and fall months! We have completed post-production and last week received news that the UNFPA is committed to funding the project through December 31, 2009. This is awesome news.

Your support has kept the project on track and our team working on this complex project through today. Any gifted funds are a vital cushion to be deployed when the project is between funding cycles (like this summer and anticipated again in January). Likewise they will help fund next year’s even larger effort! Without them, the project would end.

To build on this fund, November 4-6th, our marketing team with student Amanda Jones at the lead will be raffling great items such as the 162cm Scott Sheela women’s skis Bob Cartelli donated and gifts certificates to eateries such as Papa Franks. If you have something to contribute to the raffle, please contact me at demarle@champlain.edu Likewise do continue to share the word about our game to end violence against women and pass around our web site: http://www.emergentmediacenter.com/UNVAW/index.html
The new funding means is we are moving out of pre-production to build and test Episode I. Upon testing, this Episode will be able to be revised and finalized In Spring. This has the project on track to complete Episode I and other episodes for web launch during FIFA (June 11-July 11, 2010)!

A bit on our episodes. The game is to be deployed like a soap opera with episodes that we have organized into chapters. We have 6 chapters containing 2-3 episodes each. This is the key to success - balancing the fun of playing soccer with the narrative “ah ha” interwoven learning moments.

With the funding, this fall our team expands with 21 students and the expertise of Professor Josh Buck (to lead the 3D art & animation team), Professor Erik Esckilsen (to lead our narrative design team), and Dr. Elaine Young (to lead our new marketing effort to surround the game launch). Additionally we are looking to hire 3 positions: art/web development, cell phone/programming lead, and an assistant director to the EMC. So if you know anyone looking for a rewarding project to work on through until Dec. 31 leading to possible longer-term employment, please pass it on!

Did anyone see Oprah last week? She had an incredible show that highlighted the cause of women around the globe. Her guests included Nicolas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn authors of “Half the Sky” which I reflected upon in the last post. Due to that post, our project was picked up and appeared most recently in School Library Journal .

The organizations highlighted on the Oprah show aid women to lift them from their circumstances. I heartily applaud and support their aims. Our project gets at the problem from a different angle. It has a long term goal of causing behavior change in the oppressors…changing the source of the violence. All methods are needed to end this problem. As the “Half the Sky” book description states:

"Half the Sky" lays out an agenda for the world's women and three major abuses:
sex trafficking and forced prostitution; gender-based violence including honor
killings and mass rape; maternal mortality, which needlessly claims one woman a
minute. We know there are many worthy causes competing for attention in the
world. We focus on this one because this kind of oppression feels transcendent –
and so does the opportunity.

Small actions do add up. Thank you once again for doing those things to end the violence.