Trustworthiness campaign to spread awareness

When members of the Jeddah-based volunteer organization Young Initiative Group (YIG) stumbled upon a YouTube video promoting the virtues of the people of Australia, the group decided to launch a “trustworthiness campaign” that essentially tests the honesty of people in public places.
Simply, the campaign features a video that revolves around a camera crew capturing what people would do when coming upon a wallet on the ground. Individuals who returned the wallet to “Lost & Found” were rewarded in a creative way.
Dania Al-Masri, co-founder of YIG and project camera crewmember, said the majority of what people hear in the news nowadays is negative and often sensationalized.
“We wanted this to be a positive gift from us to everyone in society,” she said. “There is an abundance of good in people that need to be appreciated, in the same way, if not more, than the isolated few cases of bad behavior.”
Adham Attar co-founder of YIG, said that although there are many examples of people engaged in honest and trustworthy behavior, such acts have not had the proper coverage or recognition.
In addition, he noted the pessimistic view that many people hold today is that honesty and trustworthiness are vanishing, and that people with such traits are a minority.
The trustworthiness project was initiated this week with the creation of a teaser campaign. Today marks the official launch of the video. The creative campaign is a joint effort between YIG and creative hub The Loft ME.
“We immediately wanted to implement this project here, and we knew that given the correct localization of the setting and plot, the results would not disappoint,” said Attar.
YIG organizers then started for a skilled technical and creative partner. It was clear right from the beginning that The Loft ME, a Jeddah-based creative hub for design, photography and filmmaking, would be an ideal partner for such a bold idea.
“We’ve been very impressed with The Loft’s professionalism and high quality work right from the beginning,” said Mohamad Sobh, co-founder of YIG. “Despite being a start-up, they’ve continuously dedicated time to creative volunteer-based CSR projects, something that a lot of big established companies don’t even do.”
The YIG team presented the idea to The Loft ME officials, who became, according to Raghda Kabli member of YIG, as excited to work on this initiative.
“We always like to take part in projects and collaborations that promote messages of value through creative means,” said Ruba Sidani, The Loft ME co-founder.
Working around tough schedules and meeting after their regular work hours, the YIG and The Loft teams went about devising the campaign, starting with the storyboard hand-drawn by graphic designer Wedad Al Masri.
They also developed the carpentry requirements, forecasting materials needed for the different stages of the shoot, determining the number of camera operators, and most importantly, the location. The location was donated by the Red Sea Mall.
“Working with people who have different professional backgrounds opens your mind to a whole spectrum of new ideas, and the beauty of it all is it is a volunteer-based initiative,” Nour Serafi, YIG member.
Graphic designer Nour El Haj, YIG member, also said she gained new insight into the video-making process. Despite the simplicity and straightforwardness of the idea, the majority of the work took place in the pre-production phase.
Durnaz Balooshi, co-founder of YIG, also weighed in on the cultural backdrop that was taken into consideration.
“We wanted to make sure the campaign served the purpose without making the people we filmed uncomfortable,” Balooshi said. “And after several iterations, we finally arrived at a scenario that we thought was suitable, and proved as much during the filming.”
The video, according to its creators, proved that people are essentially honest.
“Although we strongly believe in its existence in every person in our society, it’s still quite refreshing to see honesty and trustworthiness in people surrounding us,” said Oday Abid, YIG member, project camera crewmember and trophy calligrapher.
Loft ME co-founder and project director Farah Jouni said,
“The making of this project was enjoyable with the spirit and enthusiasm of the YIG team, and the result was rewarding.
She added: “In implementing this idea we were conducting an experiment, and the result did not fail us. In a short period of time the ‘lost’ wallet was returned to us more times than we thought possible. It is heartwarming to get such tangible proof of honestly in our community.
It is also time that we shed light on the good in our community, instead of always highlighting the bad. We will keep exploring ways of promoting values in our community through creative means, in hope that this collaboration with YIG will not be our last.”