Rachel Hess, MEDA’s director of community economic development, recently returned from New Orleans, where she and Adele London were working on a video of MEDA’s long-term recovery assistance work there.
Video producer Eric Kanagy, CEO of RedPost – a tech start-up located in Goshen, Indiana, that designs software – collected many hours of video footage to edit into a short video telling the story of MEDA’s partnership in New Orleans with Good Work Network (GWN), a significant part of MEDA’s Back to Business Program.
“Many thanks to Eric,” notes Rachel, “as he donated his time and expertise for this project. It’s is an incredible gift to MEDA and to our partner, Good Work Network, since he is planning to make the footage available to them for use in creating their own video.”
MEDAzine learned of the trip when a Google Alert noted a link to Eric’s blog, where he said, “I’m headed to New Orleans this evening to shoot a pro bono video for MEDA (Mennonite Economic Development Associates) and a non-profit they support, Good Work Network.
“MEDA’s an incredible organization that’s helped lead efforts around the world to build capacity locally, empowering people through business,” he added. “Things like micro-finance, which have helped transform lives, as compared to handouts that keep a culture impoverished.”
MEDA has been working with GWN since early 2006. GWN provides a full range of training, technical assistance, loans and business services to business owners rebuilding or starting new ventures after Hurricane Katrina. The two organizations working together served 262 clients in the past year.
Business owners interviewed for the video described the many ways they drew on GWN support in getting back to business. “In the chaos after the storm we needed someone to just help us break it down into steps we could take,” said Greg Douglas, remembering conversations with Adele London that he credits with getting his public relations business back on track.
