Notes from Susan: Who Will Protect the Rohingya?

Notes from Susan: Who Will Protect the Rohingya?

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Who Will Protect the Rohingya? 

Image from the upcoming film “Hossain”

By Susan MacLaury

Glancing at the front page of the New York Times is not for the faint of heart. Last week’s included:  Firearms with untraceable parts being sold online; the impact of gerrymandering on the 2024 midterms; and farmers threatened by supply chain problems. But the article that grabbed my attention is titled: “Driven out of Myanmar, and Facing Death Threats in Bangladesh.”

I am, of course, referencing the more than 1 million Rohingya who fled near-certain death in Myanmar in 2017 and now inhabit 34 camps in Bangladesh that are among the most crowded spaces on earth. Beyond the expectable privation such living conditions would predict – monsoons, mudslides, inadequate food and housing and lack of education – many now also fear assassination.

Several Rohingya community workers have been killed by a militant group calling itself ARSA, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which vies with Bangladesh security forces for power over the community. ARSA funds itself through a number of illicit activities including drug trafficking and kidnapping. Although it was ARSA’s attacks on the Myanmar government in 2017 that triggered its backlash against the Rohingya community there, forcing 750,000 to flee and join thousands who had already left, ARSA is only the latest force to move against the Rohingya.

Knowing they were being targeted for murder, a number of Rohingya leaders had sought protection from both Bangladesh authorities and the UNHCR. And therein lies the problem: Who is ultimately responsible for Rohingya wellbeing? Bangladesh is desperate to relocate them and has sent tens of thousands to Bhasan Char, an island some call a “floating prison.” The UNHCR tries to persuade Bangladeshi authorities to mediate problems and forgo efforts to dismiss the refugees’ needs but has no direct authority to ensure this.

Shine Global is helping to produce a feature-length documentary called “Hossain,” about a 6-year old of the same name who has lived in the Cox’s Bazaar camp for the past 4 years. When the film  is completed in early 2022, we will help with its international impact campaign to sensitize, and hopefully compel, world leaders to recognize the plight of the Rohingya and to mobilize efforts to safely and permanently house them. They have endured more than their share of suffering and it’s time we all educate ourselves about their plight and do all we can to end it.

Dr. Susan MacLaury, PhD, LSW is the co-founder and Executive Director of the non-profit media company Shine Global which gives voice to underserved children and their families by telling their stories of resilience to raise awareness, promote action, and inspire change.  She executive produced the Academy Award® Winning documentary Inocente, the Emmy Award®-winning, Academy Award®-nominated War/Dance, as well as The Harvest (La Cosecha), 1 Way Up in 3D, The Eagle Huntress, Through Our Eyes: Homefront, and Liyana. She is also the producer of the documentary films The Wrong Light and Virtually Free and co-producer of Tre Maison Dasan. Susan is dually degreed in social work administration and health education and was associate professor of health education at Kean University from 1994 through 2013.

Shine Global is an award-winning non-profit media company that gives voice to children and their families by sharing their stories of resilience to raise awareness, promote action, and inspire change. We produce inspiring films and compelling content about at-risk children. Through tailored distribution and outreach, we connect with our audiences in communities, classrooms, museums, and on capitol hill as part of a powerful engagement campaign to encourage social change.

 

 

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Notes from Susan: America’s Youngest Hidden Helpers

Notes from Susan: America’s Youngest Hidden Helpers

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America’s Youngest Hidden Helpers

By Susan MacLaury

On November 10th, I watched a very moving event broadcast from the White House. It featured First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, Senator Elizabeth Dole, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in honoring America’s Hidden Helpers.

Senator Dole, representing the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, joined the White House’s Joining Forces, the Wounded Warrior Project and the Hidden Helpers Coalition as they pledged support to provide a range of services for children and young adults in military families who are caring for wounded, ill or critically injured warriors – suffering from both visible and invisible injuries – at home.

This year Shine Global was honored to work with Sesame Workshop to produce a short documentary for their HBO Max series, “Through Our Eyes.” We chose to focus on military children of injured parents. At the time, there were no studies that quantified the number of children living with disabled veterans, but the Hidden Helpers coalition just released their study at this White House event revealing this is a population of 2.3 million. Our short documentary, “Homefront,” tells the story of three of them: the Rodriguez family in Connecticut, the Richard Family in Virginia, and the Worleys in Georgia.

The First Lady asked Gabby Rodriguez, one of three children profiled in “Homefront” – to introduce her at the White House event. A remarkably poised and articulate child, Gabby breaks your heart with her simple candor about what it is like to have a father who has forgotten how to speak, how to read, or how to care for himself, and whose PTSD creates  emotional stress within the family.

Introduced by Secretary Austin, Gabby spoke eloquently about her father’s struggle, her mother’s unceasing efforts to care for him, and how she and her younger sister, Ava, try to help. I doubt there was a dry eye in the house by the time she thanked Dr. Biden for her support for military families and introduced her.

I know that there wasn’t a dry eye in our house. As a child, my father had been killed in the Korean War and my life had, of course, been hugely affected. Until we embarked on “Homefront,” however, I never had a real appreciation of the post-war challenges faced by soldiers with serious injuries, those who wouldn’t have survived Korea or Vietnam but, with medical advances, often do today. Their courage in trying to recover their lives and care for their families is something for us all to celebrate and support.

I’m proud that our film Homefront is playing a small part in bringing attention and support to these children and their families.  As Gabby said at the event, “I want every other caregiver kid out there to know that there are millions of us. You are not alone.” And I want Gabby and all the other kids to know that Shine Global is among the millions of Americans grateful for their parents’ service to us and who are pledging to support them.

Dr. Susan MacLaury, PhD, LSW is the co-founder and Executive Director of the non-profit media company Shine Global which gives voice to underserved children and their families by telling their stories of resilience to raise awareness, promote action, and inspire change.  She executive produced the Academy Award® Winning documentary Inocente, the Emmy Award®-winning, Academy Award®-nominated War/Dance, as well as The Harvest (La Cosecha), 1 Way Up in 3D, The Eagle Huntress, Through Our Eyes: Homefront, and Liyana. She is also the producer of the documentary films The Wrong Light and Virtually Free and co-producer of Tre Maison Dasan. Susan is dually degreed in social work administration and health education and was associate professor of health education at Kean University from 1994 through 2013.

Shine Global is an award-winning non-profit media company that gives voice to children and their families by sharing their stories of resilience to raise awareness, promote action, and inspire change. We produce inspiring films and compelling content about at-risk children. Through tailored distribution and outreach, we connect with our audiences in communities, classrooms, museums, and on capitol hill as part of a powerful engagement campaign to encourage social change.

 

 

Watch Homefront on HBOMax

Stream “Homefront” on HBOMax

Notes from Susan: Guess Who’s Coming For Dinner

Notes from Susan: Guess Who’s Coming For Dinner

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Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner

By Susan MacLaury

Growing up, my favorite TV show was a series called “Father Knows Best” about the Anderson family, who demonstrated weekly that parental interest, sensitivity, and humor could help kids resolve any issues. Decades later, the non-profit I head Shine Global, has been excited to co-produce “Onyx Family Dinner,” an 8-part series featuring parents Rita and Mirthell and their teenage children Shasha, Sinaead, Shalom and Shiloh. At the Onyx dinner table, feelings are spoken and there are no wrong feelings. And unlike the sitcoms of my childhood, these family conversations promote collective sharing of deeper concerns. Everyone feels supported in this kind of family environment.

My own upbringing had been disrupted by my father’s death when I was five. Soon after my stepfather entered, a good man with a bad drinking problem. Far from the closeness of the Onyx family dinners, ours deteriorated predictably every night. Our dinner table wasn’t a safe space to talk about our days’ experiences or to voice our opinions without the risk of personal attack. We lacked a coherent family identity and eventually my siblings and I experienced serious bouts of anxiety as we entered adolescence.

We were apparently in good company. According to the Pew Research Center, the number one problem faced by kids is anxiety, which has increased by more than 20% in the past 15 years, followed by depression, drugs and alcohol, and bullying (including cyberbullying). When we then consider the added impact of COVID-19 on families’ wellbeing – the social and financial deprivation it’s caused coupled with the fact that many adults and kids have met social isolation with increased use of personal technology – the rise in anxiety is understandable.

For more than 40 years, I worked in prevention as a social worker, therapist, and college health education professor, all of which taught me to appreciate the potential of family support for kids’ physical, emotional and social growth. During much of this time, I focused my attention on the positive influence of group support on middle and high school students. I authored a book on advisory groups and collaborated with 12 public schools in New York City and Newark, NJ to create or build their existing programs. Often called “family groups,” these sought to replicate positive family experiences by providing students the chance to explore their personal feelings and social interactions in a safe, confidential environment led by teachers, counselors, and other school staff who were trained and supervised weekly in group development.

My belief in the power of kids’ resilience and the importance of families in developing it also led me to co-found Shine Global in 2005 with my husband, Albie Hecht. In the past 16 years we’ve made 15 films and digital series about underserved children and families who model resilience and hope. These films have aired in more than 50 countries and have been used by schools, after-school programs, and families to start discussions and inspire action.

We’ve worked with many different types of families across the globe and every family has its own set of rules. Imagine if we set the expectation that eating dinner together, at least three nights a week, was a rule and no, phones are not allowed. It’s necessary for us all to have a chance to talk about our triumphs and defeats, explore the problems we face and seek advice on how best to deal with them. Over the past 30 years, many research studies have underscored the benefits of sitting down to dinner at least a few times weekly with family. Pre-teens particularly benefit from eating more nutritionally, decreasing their likelihood of developing eating disorders. They generally experience fewer behavioral problems and achieve increased literacy. These results in turn are linked to reduced rates of depression, suicide, drug abuse, and early sexual activity among teens, and achieving better grades in school overall.

Watching the Onyx Family confirms how precious a resource a loving family – however one’s family is defined – is in enabling its members to feel confident about their loveability and competence. Rita and Mirthel are strong, smart, loving parents who genuinely listen to and learn from their children. Their family embodies an essential balance between privacy and openness to positive outside influences as needed to educate and support its members. The latter is essential because any family can find itself confronting new and difficult problems and need outside help addressing them.

In these days of increasing anxiety, all of us could use the support and comfort of regular dinners with our loved ones, be they families of origin or those families we’ve created.

Dr. Susan MacLaury, PhD, LSW is the co-founder and Executive Director of the non-profit media company Shine Global which gives voice to underserved children and their families by telling their stories of resilience to raise awareness, promote action, and inspire change.  She executive produced the Academy Award® Winning documentary Inocente, the Emmy Award®-winning, Academy Award®-nominated War/Dance, as well as The Harvest (La Cosecha), 1 Way Up in 3D, The Eagle Huntress, Through Our Eyes: Homefront, and Liyana. She is also the producer of the documentary films The Wrong Light and Virtually Free and co-producer of Tre Maison Dasan. Susan is dually degreed in social work administration and health education and was associate professor of health education at Kean University from 1994 through 2013.
The Onyx Family Dinner is produced in association with Shine Global.

Shine Global is an award-winning non-profit media company that gives voice to children and their families by sharing their stories of resilience to raise awareness, promote action, and inspire change. We produce inspiring films and compelling content about at-risk children. Through tailored distribution and outreach, we connect with our audiences in communities, classrooms, museums, and on capitol hill as part of a powerful engagement campaign to encourage social change.

 

 

Download Companion Discussion Guide

Shine Global offers a free, downloadable family discussion tip guide as a resource for families.

Notes from Susan: America’s Youngest Hidden Helpers

Gabby Rodriguez, Featured in our film Homefront, Speaks at White House

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Gabby Rodriguez, Featured in our film Homefront, Speaks at White House

Joining Forces and Hidden Helpers Coalition Pledge Support to Military and Veteran Children in Caregiving Families

 

November 11, 2021 — Gabby Rodriguez, age 9 and one of the stars of our film Homefront, spoke at the White House yesterday about her experience as a military caregiver. She was part of an event with the White House’s Joining Forces Initiative, Elizabeth Dole Foundation, Wounded Warrior Project (WWP), the Hidden Helpers Coalition, and military families celebrating military and veteran caregiver children and youth.

The event also marked the release of a first-of-its-kind study detailing the impacts of military caregiving in children and youth. The study finds that 2.3 million children in the United States are living with a disabled veteran – the first evidence based quantification of these “Hidden Helpers.”

Gabby spoke about what it is like growing up after her father, veteran Jorge, was hit with an IED in Iraq and suffered hearing loss, a traumatic brain injury, and PTSD.

“I would go to the playground and ask other kids, ‘Was your dad in the military? Does he have a booboo on his brain?’ It was three long years [later] when I was at a veteran family retreat for military kids that I finally made my first friend that said, ‘Yes,’ to both of those questions. It was a huge moment for me,” Gabby said, standing alongside her 6-year-old sister Ava.

“I want every other caregiver kid out there to know that there are millions of us. You are not alone,” Gabby added.

One of the primary findings of the study is that military caregivers endure “fears of stigma and being misunderstood by friends, family, and the larger community that can engender feelings of isolation for children and caregivers.” Military caregiver children are also more likely to experience trouble learning in school and to develop health problems such as stress and fatigue. The study also found children want more support to navigate their roles as “hidden helpers” and that their needs “can get lost in their family’s response to the needs of the care recipient.”

Shine Global’s film Homefront illustrates the impact of military service on the entire family by sharing the stories of three different families. Gabby, Terry, and Luther all have parents who were injured while serving, and each family has found a way to heal the wounds of war. Homefront shows how Gabby (9), a fierce animal lover with a stock of chickens, rabbits, bees, and dogs, loves her family and faces her fears about her Dad’s traumatic brain injury and PTSD via equine therapy. Terry (10), an enthusiastic boy and his parents, Taniki and Brandon, share their experiences and mental health struggles as they work to heal and help each other cope with depression and PTSD through honest conversation and embracing joy. Luther (9) is a charismatic boy who wants to be “like my dad when I grow up.” His father, Joe, a Navy veteran who lost his leg in an IED explosion, struggles through chronic pain to put family first.

“We made this film to bring attention and support to the children and families of veterans as well as foster an open dialogue around mental health, trauma, and recovery,” director Kristi Jacobson and producers Alexandra Blaney and Netsanet Negussie shared. “Through the eyes and voices of three remarkable and inspiring children – Gabby,Terry, and Luther – we can experience the unique struggles that they and their veteran parents experience and see how military service impacts the family unit.”

The Hidden Helpers study will also be used to provide effective support to caregivers of all ages. The event yesterday marked the first step in that work with the announcement of nearly 40 public and private sector commitments for new and expanded resources, programs, and financial pledges in support of military-connected caregiver children and youth.

Homefront is part of Sesame Workshop’s “Through Our Eyes” documentary series now streaming on HBOMax

You can read and download the full report “Hidden Helpers at the Frontlines of Caregiving: Supporting the Healthy Development of Children from Military and Veteran Caregiving Homes” from Mathematica.   

You can also watch a recording of the White House event here:

 

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About Shine Global

Shine Global is a non-profit media company that gives voice to children and their families by telling their stories of resilience to raise awareness, promote action, and inspire change. We produce inspiring films and compelling content about underserved children. Through tailored distribution and outreach, we connect with our audiences in communities, classrooms, museums, and on Capitol Hill as part of a powerful engagement campaign to encourage social change. Since our founding in 2005, Shine Global films have won more than 100 major awards, including an Academy Award® for Best Documentary Short Subject for Inocente and an Academy Award®-nomination and two Emmys® for War/Dance. Recent films include the documentary-animation hybrid Liyana, the hit documentary The Eagle Huntress, and Tre Maison Dasan which broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens, and Virtually Free which won the SIMA Jury Award for Impact.

Notes from Susan: Guess Who’s Coming For Dinner

Free Companion Discussion Guide For Onyx Family Dinner Series

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Free Companion Discussion Guide For Onyx Family Dinner Series

Shine Global is pleased to offer this free companion family discussion tip guide to the “Onyx Family Dinner” YouTube series for families to download.  The series is now available to watch on YouTube – with new episodes premiering Thursdays.

Family dinner conversations offer many benefits, ranging from family bonding and building vocabulary, to fostering healthy eating habits for all ages. Whether you’re celebrating or tackling a difficult issue, the Onyx Family Dinner will serve as a model to families on how to initiate and guide discussions that will help all members of your family to support each other – and Shine Global’s free, downloadable family discussion tip guide will serve as an additional resource for families.

“Onyx Family Dinner” follows the Onyx family, a warm, creative and supportive Black family with a robust fanbase (more than 7 million subscribers across their YouTube channels) as they share their passion for learning about the world and encouraging families to engage with each other. A seat at the dinner table with dad Mirthell, mom Rita and kids Shalom, Sinead, Shasha and Shiloh, brings meaningful discussions about what’s going on in their lives and important topics such as mental health, school curriculum bias, Black hair and hair discrimination, social activism in sports, urban gardening and sustainability, body positivity and self-esteem and how to be a changemaker. The series’ diverse roster of dinner guests including former NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho, fashion influencer Kellie Brown, mental health advocate Diana Chao, activist and founder of Youth Advocates for Change Tiana Day, student and hair discrimination activist Faith Fennidy, fashion designer and urban gardener Ron Finley, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, and Emmy Award-winning sports journalist Jemele Hill who help broaden the conversation by offering different perspectives, interesting stories and valuable insight.

*You can download free curricula for Shine Global’s other films here.

Shine Global is an award-winning non-profit media company that gives voice to children and their families by sharing their stories of resilience to raise awareness, promote action, and inspire change. We produce inspiring films and compelling content about at-risk children. Through tailored distribution and outreach, we connect with our audiences in communities, classrooms, museums, and on capitol hill as part of a powerful engagement campaign to encourage social change.