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Healthcare workers and community members in Indonesia, Nepal and Vietnam have been documenting their personal experiences of Covid-19. They have each made their own ‘digital diary’, using a range of creative tools and with technical support from the project team. These diaries form part of the SPEAR project: exploring the experiences and impacts of COVID-19 for healthcare workers and vulnerable communities.

Participants to the project SPEAR Digital Diaries from the Sumba Community, eastern Indonesia

The digital diaries have gathered a wide range of stories. They include reflections of the challenges and difficulties participants have faced during this time. They also document the positive experiences, they may have had – of cooperation, resilience and inspiration – whether personally, within family, or within their workplace and their community. To create the diaries participants have been invited to use videos, photos, drawings, recordings or other artworks to express their experiences of Covid-19.

We hope these diaries reach a wide audience through social media. We also intend, when physical movement and meeting becomes easier, that they are shared within each author’s community directly.

We anticipate that watching these stories will help prompt viewers to consider their own economic and emotional situation as a result of the pandemic and to evaluate how they have managed as individuals. We also hope that that these stories help people to consider strategies communities can adopt for supporting one another in future challenging contexts.

Members of the project team have written about ‘Digital Diaries as a Platform for Participating in Covid-19 Research’ in a paper available on the JSTOR website.