Purpose, integrity, and curiosity are the principles Jorge Enriquez, one of our Pandemic Project winners, aims to live by. When his community was facing a stretch of bad news in April 2020, Enriquez began creating video "self-therapy sessions" to connect with others who were similarly having a hard time. “Sometimes people need a friendly voice or a friendly face, just to tell them that it's okay to feel a certain way," he says. "That was mainly my objective. It wasn't to void what was happening, but actually acknowledge it and say you know what, what's happening is terrible and it's okay that you're not feeling well about it.”
Those 10 self-therapy videos and the positive feedback he received inspired Enriquez to go further in his mission of helping others. He refreshed his website and started vlogging using mmhmm to highlight his humor and creativity. One thing he learned along the way is starting is the hardest part. His advice to others interested in video communications is, “I think the first and only step is you have to get out of your own way. The learnings that I've gotten the last year while getting more comfortable with video have been amazing and have really allowed me to unlock a lot of that potential growth and confidence.”
Thank you, Jorge, for inspiring us with your pandemic project to lift up others during such a difficult year. Congratulations!