Doctors of the World – Names not Numbers
Over 300,000 women die every year due to pregnancy related complications and unsafe abortions.
In the past year, as people in developing countries continued to fight for basic women’s rights, many of those same rights came under fierce attack across Europe and the United States.
Doctors of the World, set out to draw attention to this major problem. Instead of focusing on daunting statistics we wanted to get to the heart of the issue: each woman who dies from poor medical, hygienic, or political conditions.
With the help of B-Reel and We Do, we created a machine that prints the names of the women who have died on pre-addressed postcards that people can mail to their local politician. But they only have one minute to claim a card before it is lost. On March 8th, International Women’s Day, the machine was placed near Centre Pompidou in Paris. Over a thousand people claimed cards and sent them to Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, France’s Minister of Women’s Rights.
Over 300,000 women die every year due to pregnancy related complications and unsafe abortions.
In the past year, as people in developing countries continued to fight for basic women’s rights, many of those same rights came under fierce attack across Europe and the United States.
Doctors of the World, set out to draw attention to this major problem. Instead of focusing on daunting statistics we wanted to get to the heart of the issue: each woman who dies from poor medical, hygienic, or political conditions.
With the help of B-Reel and We Do, we created a machine that prints the names of the women who have died on pre-addressed postcards that people can mail to their local politician. But they only have one minute to claim a card before it is lost. On March 8th, International Women’s Day, the machine was placed near Centre Pompidou in Paris. Over a thousand people claimed cards and sent them to Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, France’s Minister of Women’s Rights.
We also created a digital version of the machine at names-not-numbers.org. Here users can claim a virtual card and send it via Facebook or Twitter to their local politician or Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general at the United Nations. We want to harness the power of social media to contact these leaders in a way they can’t ignore.
Details of the machine and impressions of the online experience
Impressions of the event on March 8th, International Women's Day. Place Igor-Stravinsky, Paris
Outdoor campaign, Paris Métro
Print campaign, french press
Construction and filming of the machine
We want get our message directly from the people to the politicians. We want our leaders to take concrete steps to secure women’s reproductive rights around the world. We want everyone to see that these are real women and not just statistics.
The site names-not-numbers.org is now offline, but consider supporting Doctors of the World at medecinsdumonde.org
The site names-not-numbers.org is now offline, but consider supporting Doctors of the World at medecinsdumonde.org