Twa Zanmi (Three Friends)

The Twa Zanmi Project will nurture a new Haitian immigrant community production team to produce and market a “Telenovela” program. The objective is to familiarize the Haitian community with the real experiences of immigrants living with depression and anxiety as an understandable result of acculturative stress. The Twa Zanmi Project will generate a community dialogue about mental health, with the goal of developing health ambassadors in the community, decreasing stigma associated with mental health, and promoting service access.

Partners

Haitian American Public Health Initiative | Haitian Media Network | Institute for Community Inclusion

Project Media


Related Blogs

Project Update for Twa Zanmi - July 2008

Twa Zanmi partners are planning several events and activities which will unfold in 2008. We are working across 3 key areas: marketing, community-based research and evaluation, and additional capacity building for our team. Read More


Twa Zanmi Makes the News

The Boston Haitian Reporter featured an article by Martine Louis on the New Routes Twa Zanmi project. From the article:

The Twa Zanmi [Three Friends] project— a collaboration between the Haitian American Public Health Initiative, Camera Mosaique of the Haitian Media Network and Institute for Community Inclusion at UMass Boston—has set out to study the immigration experiences of Boston's Haitian community and their struggle to develop a new identity in a new society. Read More


Haiti’s Food Riots

This story from Mark Schuller, who teaches at Vassar, is about the food riots in Haiti that took place in April. Although it is not about Haitians in the U.S. Read More




Hi Sara,It would be a great

Submitted by Susan Foley on June 5, 2008 - 11:52am.
Hi Sara,It would be a great pleasure to connect and see if we can help each other. I fear we have no great solutions as yet as we are also in a learning process. Nearly every culture imposes people with mental illnesses with a high degree of isolation and shame. Anti-stigma campaigns in the US continue. Our long range goal is to reduce stigma, so we are focusing on creating dialogue in various forms and getting out the message that mental illness is treatable, preventable, and anyone can have it.  I’m sending on to you summaries of our focus groups in February. We had two large groups, one of professionals and various community leaders and the other community members largely Haitian who have recently entered the US. During the second group, we had an improvised sketch that seven or so Haitian men and women introduced the issues. Quite lively. We are rather convinced that we need to “put a face” to mental illness, relay information in stories rather than through experts, and talk about symptoms rather than disorders. This may be more in tune with Haitian culture than Somali as the role of experts may be very different. The trick will be to convey an entertaining and engaging story line that provides accurate information rather subtly.   Perhaps we could look at this issue further through our conference call and in-person visits? I’m looking forward to talking on June 9th. Please feel free to call us! I’ve included Dr. Renald Raphael on this email. He led the focus groups and is leading the charge for the Twa Zanmi Project and he is deeply committed to this issue.  Susan

Sara Rohde Egal Shidad

Submitted by Sara Rohde on June 4, 2008 - 10:45am.

Sara Rohde Egal Shidad Coordinator

Hello Twa Zanmi Team,

I am very intrigued by your project, and especially in how you are addressing stigma and service access.  Egal Shidad is working on these issues too, so I would love to learn more about what you are doing. Even if our audiences are not the same, you might have some really helpful information.  We need ideas on stigma and service access.  Do you have any tips for us?

Thank you,

Sara 

Friendly faces!

Submitted by Brenda González on January 21, 2008 - 8:26pm.
Thank you friends from Twa Zanmi. The New Routes National Program Office staff is looking forward to getting to know more about the program, about your community and the people that will be involved in this wonderful partnership. Stay warm! Brenda González New Routes Deputy Director