Mapping communities with visual media

By MAINE WINNY
IN PNG, six years ago, we started a project called Finschhafen District data and communication strategy which was supported by former MP and speaker of Paliament Theodore Zurenuoc.
The process involved visual community mapping exercise to collect data based on the village recorders information’s, and community consultation, The community maps where then transferred into a graphic map that captured almost all needed data for the community is just one day.
The visual community map would be converted into an interactive data map, eg, with click on a house hold number that links up to a required data for the family, or trade store, community village records etc.
This data would be viewed via, almost all technology platforms on and online on a dedicated website. The end product would be a customized visual learning software for visual communication for the district. Unfortunately due to ongoing funding difficulties the project did not progress to achieve the expected outcome.
Another Project was the Community Health Post and Visual Learning Centre Concept. Working with former Minister for Health, Sasa Zibe and Melbourne based Architect and designer Gordon who teamed up with us, we started to work on a community Health Post Concept, incorporating the visual learning centre, for both online and offline health information and educations.
This innovation that incorporates one of the world’s best environmentally friendly movable building system, with many features including category five, cyclone proof, solar power, rain water harvesting system, a building system that fits into existing grids in the city or in our remote communities.
The Visual Learning system incorporates health information, both global and local; with customized health education materials accessed via a centralised information hub for the health department.
Through this online information centre emergency disease alerts can be issued directly to health officers, and also communicated to the general public in less than 24 hours. The complete system comes in a container and is assembled in few weeks as opposed to traditional construction that takes months.
Trying to communicate to the growing unemployment populations of people in Lae, where the bulk of the marginalised groups who do not have access to information to improve their livelihood, learning and developing new skills, in self-employment and access to online education, we realize there is now availability of a bulk of information online via the internet, however the basic knowledge to use these technology is unavailable, and knowing that a bulk of the information is text based and even harder to understand is still a barrier.
V Learning has developed a system captured in a project design, the Lae Online Visual Learning Centre, where global information is customised and localised and visualised for the specific target audience in the City.
The intranet based website would distribute information specifically addressing the needs of Lae community. Information will be available to view on the site or download for use on multiple devices.
All content will be visually based so it’s easily understood and translated by key members of the community. This is different from a normal website that distributes a lot of text based materials.
For example, a complete general information on Lae city including learning programs for targeted groups, like youths, women, student, all marginalised groups are access through all new technology devices, such as smart phones, tablets including interactive information touch screen kiosk at airports and strategic business locations etc.
New courses and downloadable resources will be available regularly. As Lae grows, so will the site to reflect progress.
We have also started a component of the Online Learning Centre for Buimo Jail, but due to the unavailability of a building for a physical set up appropriate for inmates, we will be talking with the new Lae district administration and other funders to incorporate this into the main Lae Online Learning and Information Centre.

Visual Learning Development Strategy.
Our PNG Program became a research project where we began to study how best the Visual Learning Development and delivery would be used. This is how we identified the issues in community learning and looked at ways to implement the strategy in PNG

Barriers to information
If we look at how information flows throughout PNG we can see that key messages have difficulty reaching a significant part of the community when these messages are text based. Many at-risk communities are vulnerable because their literacy levels are very low. In these communities communicating simple messages such as preventative health measures has been difficult. In addition education levels are hard to raise as students struggle with content that has a text bias.

Looking back
With one of the most diverse languages on earth, PNG has traditionally had a resilient and effective communication and education process. This was largely based on oral storytelling and visual learning.