Years of warfare in Nicaragua have scarred this Central American nation. Its failing health system prompted graduate students Maria Molina and Felipe Donaire to produce "Pan American Voices: Social Services and Medical Practices in Nicaragua," a documentary and final project for their degrees in social work.
The film was shown for the first time last Monday in SF State's Burk Hall. The presentation was followed by an open forum for questions from viewers.
Molina, originally from Nicaragua, recently returned to film the way people are attaining health and human service in her country.
The film presents a history of Nicaragua and its social services to present day operation. The main theme of the film is the concept of "Medical Pluralism."
"Medical Pluralism is a mixture of a folk medicine system of healing and curing combined with a medical system of doctors and nurses," Molina said. "It's a way for a people to meet their needs. A whole community works together," she said.
The film was shot by Molina with the help of four other SF State students. The filming took place last summer over a period of 30 days.
"We traveled from Honduras to the north, all through Nicaragua, to the south in Costa Rica," Molina said. "We worked every day from 7 a.m. to one in the morning shooting film and arranging interviews," she said.
Molina and crew shot the film with a home video camera. None of the people on the trip had film experience.
Christine Harris, also a social work graduate student, went with Molina to Nicaragua to help with the filming.
"I had a great experience. I got a sense of the culture," Harris said. "I saw a community that used all their inner resources and strength to keep their social services together."
According to Molina there are almost no social services for the people. Approximately five percent of the people have health insurance and can afford to get professional medical services, she said.
Donaire, who is of Nicaraguan descent, did not join Molina on her trip. He helped write the script and gathered all the historical footage of Nicaragua from here. He viewed and edited, in all, 80 hours of film. Donaire was moved by the footage he saw.
"When I first started looking at the footage I learned a lot about the country that I didn't know. It enriched me," he said. "It gave me a sense of who I was."
The film was sponsored by the Institute for Multicultural Research and Social Work Practice, which is part of the School of Social Work. The institute promotes respect and knowledge of diverse cultures through research, publication, education and training.
"Money for the film came from the Intructionally Related Activities (IRA) fund, which funds projects by students. The money is given out by Associated Students," said Rita Takahashi, the current director of the institute and associate professor in the social work department. "Pan American Voices is one of two multicultural video projects being done this year. Next year we hope to have four," she said.
Molina and Donaire hope to show their film to the Latino community and again to the campus community.
"We hope this picture will be seen at social service and multicultural conferences as well. Maybe we can take it out of California and take it on tour," Molina said.
According to Molina and Donaire, when they started to do research for the film they were amazed at how little there was written about their country.
"I wanted to make sure that our children have a piece of their past. Something to look back on about their culture," Molina said.