The scene opens on a Saturday afternoon in a sunny living room. A woman sits on the couch working on her laptop. Her husband comes into the room, yawns, and tells her that he’s just woken up from a nap. It’s already his second one of the day and he jokes that he’s becoming like a newborn who needs to sleep every three hours.
A couple from AshaUSA’s skit discuss one partner’s recent excessive sleepiness.
While the scene seems light at first, as the couple talks, clues emerge that something beyond just normal weekend siesta is going on with the husband. In the next scene, in fact, the couple finds out that the husband is experiencing early symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
The skit is part of a health education project created by AshaUSA, a Minnesota-based nonprofit organization that provides culturally specific programs to South Asian communities (now under the umbrella of SEWA-AIFW). Since 2000, the South Asian population in the state has more than doubled, with about 70% of South Asian Minnesotans being first generation immigrants. With the growth in numbers has come additional support needs around health, family, and youth development, which AshaUSA works to address.
Breaking Down Stigma Through Storytelling
In 2023, the AshaUSA team decided to focus on bringing awareness to and breaking down stigmas associated with Parkinson’s Disease, the progressive nervous system disorder. The organization often works to educate community members about health and wellness topics that are seen as “taboo” in some South Asian cultures.
Kamala Puram, AshaUSA founder and board chair
Kamala Puram, AshaUSA founder and Board Chair, shared, “There is limited knowledge about Parkinson’s disease in our community and most of [the community members] do not know how to react or support the person who is recently diagnosed. As a result, people try to hide and not seek help from friends and family. When the community understands the issues, they will be in a better position to provide the needed support for these individuals.”
Structural barriers also prove challenging. “Even getting a Parkinson’s diagnosis is difficult,” Kamala said. “There is a shortage of neurologists, so people wait a long time to be seen.” She has personal experience navigating the disease with a loved one–her husband was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2002.
While some organizations might have designed a pamphlet or organized a community event to raise awareness, Kamala and the AshaUSA team wanted to harness the power of storytelling by writing a skit about a family dealing with a new Parkinson’s diagnosis. “People remember more when we share the information as a story instead of a presentation,” Kamala said. They envisioned that the skit would include South Asian community members as actors and culturally specific details that would help the audience connect with the story.
The AshaUSA team had one problem: No one knew how to write the script for a play.
Tapping Into Talent
A fellow nonprofit leader who had worked with Taproot volunteers in the past suggested to Kamala that Taproot Plus would be a good resource to connect with a pro bono writer. As it turned out, the volunteer who offered their service for the project came with an impressive resume.
Writer Fred Raker
Fred Raker is a freelance copywriter working primarily in marketing and advertising. Early in his career, Fred was a television comedy writer in Hollywood, penning jokes for Johnny Carson and Larry David. He has also written plays, screenplays, and other types of scripts for more than 40 years.
Fred began his skilled volunteer journey with Taproot in 2008. He was experiencing a period of unemployment and needed something to keep him busy. “Meeting new people and getting involved in a worthy project was the perfect thing to do. Interestingly, after I did the Taproot project, I started getting more freelance work. (There’s a moral in there somewhere.)”
Fred thought his scriptwriting skills would be good fit for the AshaUSA project. He was drawn to the subject for personal reasons as well: both Fred’s father and father-in-law battled Parkinson’s disease.
Getting Down to Business
Kamala and Fred worked closely together to determine the best direction for the skit to take. “Kamala was very clear on what information needed to come out,” Fred remembered. “She wanted the script to be both informative and creative and she gave me the freedom to do that.”
Kamala and her team recruited volunteers from the community to play the four acting roles the script called for: the husband and wife, a neurologist, and the husband’s “commuting buddy.” The actors rehearsed their parts and eventually filmed each scene. The result is a series of vignettes that run the gamut from funny to emotional to educational.
The skit includes a scene of the main characters at the doctor’s office where the husband receives a Parkinson’s diagnosis
“Someone is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease once every 7 minutes. Often, people do not know how to react or support a loved one when they find out that they have the disease. The skit will help people understand what the person diagnosed with Parkinson’s may be going through and how to support them,” Kamala said.
Next Steps: Help Still Needed
AshaUSA now has all the pieces to make a knockout public health advocacy piece. But there’s still one final step—they need more volunteer support to put it all together.
Kamala recently listed a project on Taproot Plus to find a skilled volunteer to help turn the recorded clips into a polished, final video. Each scene is recorded and voiceover narration and graphics are ready to go–the organization just lacks the tools and expertise to edit them all together into one final, shareable piece.
Big Plans for Big Impact
The AshaUSA team intends to upload the final video to their YouTube channel and distribute it through social media. They also hope to perform the skit live on stage in the future. Kamala, who is on the board of the American Parkinson’s Disease Association, plans to share it with that network, too. If it goes well, they have also discussed using the same model to create skits to educate the community about other diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer.
“We are so grateful to Fred for his help in putting together the script and bringing his expertise to this project. I was really impressed with his ability to incorporate humor into this serious subject,” Kamala shared, adding, “We’re also thankful to Taproot for connecting us. The process was so easy and smooth. I look forward to raising awareness about Parkinson’s and hopefully creating a supportive environment where the families who are impacted by the disease don’t feel isolated and lonely.”