Contest instructions

Categories for submission include community/group advocacy related to hepatitis, community/group input into policy, public awareness and education, public service delivery support and community/group-based research.

Note: We encourage submissions in English, but also accept French, Chinese, Russian, Arabic and Spanish. If you do not wish to share your story publicly, but still want your views to be heard, you may also choose to submit anonymously.

Format

    Textual narrative (less than 500 words): written story on the subject
    Image (no more than 2 pages): You can create an image using a picture, photograph or hand-drawn drawing
    Audio/video clip (up to 3 minutes): can be audio or video or a combination of both
    Infographic (no more than 2 pages): Combine images, graphics and a small amount of text description to provide an easy to understand overview of the topic

 Due to various social and healthcare system factors, in many countries, people with hepatitis have always remained silent. In fact, telling the hepatitis story publicly can help the public and even policy makers to better understand the impact of the disease on individuals, families, groups and societies.

 The project is organised by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the World Hepatitis Organisation, EndHep2030 and other partners.

 An open call is a form of crowdsourcing that aims to gather a diverse range of people's opinions from different audiences in a brainstorming way to gain a comprehensive understanding of hepatitis-related issues. A steering committee is usually set up, independent judges are invited to assess the submissions, and the winning entries are widely displayed and shared. Open calls are an innovative bottom-up approach to solving social issues. More information on the health-related open call can be found here.

 The quality of the entries will be assessed. As mentioned above, each submission will be assessed on four criteria: ability to influence, relevance, feasibility and completeness.

 Hepatitis D virus (HDV) is a virus that needs to be dependent on the hepatitis B virus (HBV) in order to replicate. Hepatitis D infection can only occur in conjunction with or in combination with hepatitis B infection. Nearly 5% of people with chronic hepatitis B infection worldwide are infected with hepatitis D. Hepatitis D-Hepatitis B co-infection is considered to be the most severe form of chronic viral hepatitis because it progresses more rapidly to hepatic death and hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatitis D can be prevented by vaccination against hepatitis B. The most common modes of transmission of hepatitis D are contact mother-to-child transmission during birth, and contact transmission of blood or body fluids (including sexual intercourse, needle sharing for drug injection). Vertical transmission from mother to child via the placenta is rare.

 Hepatocellular carcinoma may occur when there is a mutation in the DNA of the liver cells. Chronic hepatitis B, D or C infection can increase the risk of liver cancer.

 In order to avoid similar submissions, we do not usually provide examples. We recommend that you think about how to tell a good story and start from there.

 Online platforms can be powerful advocacy tools, as evidenced by NOhep's online hepatitis advocacy campaign and other Health Assembly campaigns.

 There is no limit to the number of entries you can submit, but if you wish to submit more than one entry, please submit each entry separately.

 No, anyone is eligible to participate. Patients or people who have recovered are welcome to participate, and family members, friends of patients/recovered individuals and hepatitis advocates are all welcome to participate.

 This open call focuses on the impact of hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV) and hepatitis D (HDV). While other forms of hepatitis are also important, they are not relevant to this call.

 Yes, as the aim of this open call is to share your story and work on a wider scale, please submit what you would like to share publicly.

 Yes, we will share the winning entry publicly, but we will contact you to ask for your permission before sharing it. Therefore, it is important that you provide your personal contact details during the submission process.

 Yes, in addition to information about the entries, our survey will need to collect some basic demographic information, including gender, age, nationality, and your contact details in order to contact the winner.

 None, but if you are a finalist, we will need your name and contact details in order to award you a prize. The privacy of participants is of paramount importance and we will never share your personal information with any third party,.

 Questions such as these are one of the many reasons why we are launching this open call. Through your story, we hope to bring it to the attention of as many people as possible to improve local hepatitis services. In addition, we can help launch advocacy groups and organisations to help improve the quality of life for people with hepatitis in the community.

 Yes, the organisation, group or individual that contributes the most (quantitatively and qualitatively) to the submission will be invited to become a partner in the in-country workshop and will have the opportunity to network with local civil society, advocates and policy makers.

 There are a number of open access resources for creating infographics and related visual materials. For more information click here.

If you have any questions, please email hepatitis.stories@gmail.com or contact (wechat: seshllc.)
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