STORY FROM ARUNACHAL is an educational film created by Maria Strzemieczna - Polish nurse and sociologist, who has been working as a part Polish Medical Mission Association on promotion of preventive health care in India and by Martushka Fromeast - photographer and founder of Click Academy, collaboratively with a group of children from Governmental Primary School in New Khimiyang, in Arunachal Pradesh.
Arunachal Pradesh is one of the 29 states of India. Located in northeast India, it shares international borders with Bhutan in the west, Myanmar in the east and China in the north. China claims the northern part of the state as a part of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Arunachal is a very diverse state, restricted from access by outsiders and inhabited by various tribes, speaking different languages. Many years of geographical and political isolation of the area allowed local population to preserve their tribal traditions and culture. At the same time political difficulties contributed to a slowdown in the development of the region, limiting access to education and health care. Nowadays people of Arunachal Pradesh are facing rapid changes in lifestyle, related to migrations and cultural influences from central and southern states of India. Those processes pose a threat to the local tribal traditions.
The film was prepared in a very intensive collaboration and consultation with the local community from New Khimiyang. It raises the issues of recent rapid changes in this region – risks and hopes that they bring for the local communities. It also underlines the importance of simple health interventions, such as hand-washing with soap, as an effective disease prevention method.
Film (English, Polish and Hindi versions) is available for download and use on the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Poland licence. Some rights are reserved for Martushka Fromeast and Maria Strzemieczna. Permission is granted to any use of this film on a condition of including the above-mentioned information about the applicable license, the rights holders and the Polish Development Cooperation Program.
Project was co-financed within the framework of the Polish aid – development cooperation program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, 2014.