This is Alyssa's very detailed blog of her time in Ghana:
http://happyyourselfspot.blogspot.com/

News from Africa

One of my good friends from high school is on student exchange in Ghana. This was her reaction to my postcard:

Awesome postcard.  I'm all for it.  I have firsthand accounts of
that stuff.  It's terrible, and it's incredibly overlooked,
especially in Africa.  There are villages in Ghana that have
just one well, and it's next to the pit that everyone uses
as a toilet.  I know it's worse in other countries, but it's
still not good.  What's more, there are no waste disposal
plants.  In Accra maybe, but definitely not in Ho, even though
it's the capital of the Volta Region.  So all the trash either
goes in the gutter or it gets burnt.  It's terrible.  I want
to cry every time I see a burning pile of trash.  And the
river that goes through Accra... I've never seen more rubbish
in a river. Ugh.  But I'm making myself sad.  So I'm gonna
stop.  But awesome postcard.  I love the design.

Other works.

Portland Community College. Spring '08

University of Idaho. Fall '07
Birthday gift for the boyfriend, Brian. Dec '07
Portland State University. Fall '08
Portland State University. Fall '08

charity:paper and charity:images

Im Sorry, these are really bad photographs. Above is the postcard. Below is the Poster. I forgot to save them in file format smaller than a tiff at school and I don't have photoshop at home so I can't resave them as jpegs. Sorry again, but you can get the design idea.

Thank you, Luke. Thank you for an eye opening term.


Jasmine Silver
Bertus MW
Art 118 630-920
“charity: water is a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. They give 100% of the money raised to direct project costs, funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need. They also work to raise awareness of the water crisis through events, fundraising exhibitions and other public awareness campaigns. Right now, 1.1 billion people on the planet don't have access to safe, clean drinking water. That's one in six of us…”

Charity is not something I have ever considered to be a “real” job. It just has never really crossed my mind. I don’t know anyone who has worked in charity, so it’ not something that has been positively reinforced in my life. When I think of charity I think of the people who force contact with me in hopes that I will sponsor a child in a developing country or donate to a worthy cause. I spot them from afar. Their white notebooks give them away. Then I try to avoid them. It’s not like what I think they’re doing is wrong, I commend them for trying to get the message out, but I am still very annoyed at their tactics.

As I was walking to Stumptown Coffee to work on this paper I was forced into an over enthusiastic handshake and hello by a white notebook person. Not to shake hands with her is extremely rude, while to shake hands with her is to invite unwanted charitable solicitation. So I tried to go for the in between. I shook her hand and said “sorry not today.”

Once, I had I had some time to kill so I decided to find out what their charity was all about. It was so easy to contribute. Basically, they just take X amount of dollars out of your account every month to help send children to schools overseas. “Great,” I thought, “I can do eight dollars a month. I just have to not eat out for one meal.” But then it turned out that you have to be 21 to donate. Age is one thing I’m definitely lacking in.

When I found out that we were going to be working with a charity in class, all these preconceived notions about charity flooded my mind. I would like to say that I was excited to be doing something real. I would like to say I was stoked, but that would be a lie. I just wanted to do something “normal,” to tell you the truth.

Then there was the water bottle chandelier idea and I was instantly on board. I felt guilty for not liking the Charity project, so I wanted to create something to make up for my selfish thoughts. Over the weekend I planned and collected and created, but, when I was finished, I wasn’t happy with the results. I showed my chandelier to Heather and Laura from class who told me that that they really liked it, even though I didn’t. They gave me enough courage to bring it to class. In class, my chandelier was shot down. Not even some recognition for the hours I laid down to produce it. I was immediately cynical again, but tried not to be mad because I didn’t even like it.

My natural draw to leadership pushed me out of my negative little world. When it was time to research other non-profits, I pulled a small group of people who expressed interest in building a chandelier together. We compiled a list of materials to get the class thinking about what they had at home that could help make a better chandelier than mine.

“Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Many people in the developing world, usually women and children, walk more than three hours every day to fetch water that is likely to make them sick. Those hours are crucial, preventing many from working or attending school. Additionally, collecting water puts them at greater risk of sexual harassment and assault. Children are especially vulnerable to the consequences of unsafe water. Of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation, 90% are children under 5 years old…”

My career goals are to design for Advertising. I made that decision when I was a junior in high school. Now I’m a sophomore in college and I haven’t looked back. Have you ever seen a TV commercial so good that you felt emotionally affected afterwards? Have you ever turned a page in a magazine and gasped at the brilliance of the photography or the creativity of the design? I have. Maybe it’s just the music, Simon and Garfunkel, they have playing at this coffee shop, but I am getting emotional just thinking about it. I consider myself a smart shopper, but I also acknowledge the fact that I am much more inclined to buy a product who’s packaging visually stimulates me, than one that doesn’t. I know advertising works.

It interests me that I would love that job that Scott Harrison, the founder of charity:water, gave up. It’s not as though I would reject a job at a nonprofit, I have just never considered it as an option before. Design, for me, is not about the money. As long as I can live comfortably and be surrounded by design, I will be happy. I sincerely love it.

Maybe I will design for the other 90%, and maybe I won’t. What’s important is that I now know an alternative to advertising for a large wealthy company. Working for a charity had never crossed my mind before. I think that life is all about gaining new perspectives, which is exactly what learning about charity:water has done.