Mercy Corps and ESI Design Launch Significant Global Video Field Dispatch Program to Support Aid Projects

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - June 4, 2008) - Mercy Corps, a global relief and development agency, and ESI Design, a world leader in experience design, today announced the launch of an intensive development phase for possibly the first broad-scale video field dispatch program by a major non-governmental organization (NGO). Produced with inexpensive off-the-shelf technologies (like webcams and digital cameras), dispatches will improve awareness in the U.S. about progress achieved by aid projects in countries such as Sudan, Congo, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Ethiopia through the unfiltered, previously unheard voices of relief workers and aid beneficiaries. Cassandra Nelson of Mercy Corps and Gideon D'Arcangelo of ESI Design will be in Pader, Uganda June 2-6 to train Mercy Corps staff as the first generation of "global citizen journalists" or "field reporters." Mercy Corps' future plans include training field workers in other areas the organization works, including Asia and the Middle East.

The video dispatches -- a form of "global citizen journalism" adapted to the needs of NGOs -- will be used in Mercy Corps' new Action Centers, scheduled to open in New York City in fall 2008 and in Portland, Oregon in mid-2009. The Action Center to End World Hunger (the New York facility), a collaborative effort of Mercy Corps and ESI Design, is a wholly new kind of cultural institution that will inspire visitors to become partners in alleviating global poverty, encouraging them to learn about the root causes of hunger and to participate in both immediate relief efforts as well as long-term solution development.

Cassandra Nelson of Mercy Corps said, "The video field dispatch program will be an important communications tool for Mercy Corps and, ultimately, for other NGOs as well. Through the use of inexpensive, readily available technologies, these 'storytellers,' many who live and work in remote, inaccessible, poverty-stricken, and war-torn areas, will offer first-person accounts filled with unprecedented, uncensored insight into the daily experiences of ordinary people who are struggling to improve their own lives."

Gideon D'Arcangelo of ESI Design said, "Dispatches will expose visitors to the daily experiences of Mercy Corps' field workers as they implement food security programs, sustainable economic development and civil society projects around the world. At the same time, the accounts give voice to the beneficiaries of these aid projects, so often seen as anonymous victims of hunger, poverty, war and economic calamities. Field dispatches give them a channel for their stories to be heard."

Dispatches will cover a variety of issues and emanate from a combination of other NGOs working on related issues, the communities in which Mercy Corps works and local officials. Here's a sample of the initial Mercy Corps projects that will be highlighted:

--  Agriculture program: consists of producer groups, demonstration plots
    and fields. Mercy Corps' tillage program is starting the week of June 2.
    
--  Pader Peace Program: Parish Peace Committees have been trained and
    established in each of the 89 parishes of Pader District. Radio listening
    groups have also been formed. A district-level Pader Peace Forum works to
    build the capacity of these groups at parish level to support peace and
    reconciliation.
    
--  Youth program: Youth show examples of businesses/micro-enterprises
    they are planning to start such as grinding mills, carpentry, piggeries,
    produce markets, ox cultivation, brick making, beekeeping, and phone
    charging (with a solar panel).
    
--  Water, sanitation and hygiene program: completed shallow wells (with
    hand pumps), school latrine blocks (with hygiene messages on the outside),
    latrine slabs produced for household latrines, household latrines, hygiene
    best practice (water storage, drying racks, bath shelters) and hand washing
    facilities.
    

ESI Design and Mercy Corps believe that "global citizen journalism" will radically shape the future face of information and meaningful exchange. Their joint effort with the Action Center demonstrates how technology we take for granted in the developed world can perform a vital function in human development, and the unique (and ancient) power of stories told by the people who are living them.

Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps works amid disasters, conflicts, chronic poverty and instability to unleash the potential of people who can win against nearly impossible odds.

It is among an elite group of organizations to win Fast Company and Monitor Group's 2008 Social Capitalist Award for its innovative and entrepreneurial approaches to tackling some of the world's most challenging problems. It was awarded the prestigious 4-star rating by Charity Navigator, America's premier independent charity evaluator, and was a 2007 nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Action Center to End World Hunger is Mercy Corps' first initiative in New York City. Since 1979, Mercy Corps has provided $1.5 billion in assistance to people in 106 nations. Supported by headquarters offices in North America, Europe and Asia, the agency's unified global programs employ 3,500 staff worldwide and reach nearly 16.4 million people in more than 35 countries.

ESI Design

Founded by Ed Schlossberg 30 years ago and headquartered in New York City, ESI Design is the world's leading experience design firm and a pioneer in creating multi-dimensional experiences across numerous channels that generate a quantifiable return for clients such as Sony, Best Buy, McDonald's, Reuters, the Children's Museum of Los Angeles, Infinity at NASA Stennis Space Center, the Museum and the American Family Immigration History Center at Ellis Island.

Contact Information: Contact: Joanne Lessner (212) 222-7436 Helen Thompson (212) 537-0522