What: Cynthia Moses: Environmental Education in the DRC with the International Conservation and Education Fund When: Tuesday, October 29th at 12 noon Where: The Allen Center, CSE 203 Join us for this weeks Change talk by Cynthia Moses on here work with the International Conservation and Education Fund (INCEF) an NGO working in the Democratic Republic of Congo promoting the health and wellbeing of human and wildlife populations through local video disseminations. Abstract INCEF was founded on 3 principles: 1) The revolutionary change in communications technology in recent years and the fact that the barriers to production and dissemination – technical, physical, financial – have either disappeared or have been greatly reduced; 2) using this technology successfully to create actual change is not likely to occur unless people profoundly understand the risk to their own health and well-being and also have a sense of what they can actually do themselves to prevent trouble. We have created a production style that uses first-person testimony and relies on productions in local languages and the voices of local people; and 3) dissemination – how the films are shown. In the case of INCEF, films are taken into the field by teams of two trained educators who measure impact by quantity of viewers, quality of responses before and after each film, and through anecdotal reactions. This methodology has shown positive results in challenges throughout Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo on issues ranging from conservation and to basic health issues, to the complexities of understanding how zoonotic diseases are spread and the repercussions of shifting climates. About the Speaker Cynthia Moses, founder of Moses Films Ltd., has been making award-winning wildlife and conservation films for nearly two decades. Her work has aired on National Geographic, PBS, the Discovery Channel, NBC, as well as internationally. Almost a decade after it was produced, New Chimpanzees (1995) is still considered the definitive film on chimpanzee cultural traditions. Odzala: Islands in the Forest (1999) was essential in convincing the government of the Republic of Congo to expand that park to four times its original size. Living with Gorillas (2000) was the first film to document the behavior of Western Lowland Gorillas. She was part of the team that produced the Emmy nominated Discover Magazine (1995-1999) science series. Her two-hour special Gorillas: Primal Contact (2003) is the first film to cover all three recognized subspecies of gorillas. Her work in Africa and around the world has motivated her to become more involved in conservation serving as a consultant for the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force, producing several short films for The Wildlife Conservation Society on conservation issues in central Africa, and more recently as founder of the International Conservation and Education Fund whose mission is to integrate conservation and health issues through grassroots outreach education.