ISNTD Festival 2025
Creative industries, science communication & public engagement for global health
Online conference
2-3 April 2025
#ISNTDFestival
Introduction
The ISNTD Festival brings together communication, arts, entertainment and science to help complex public health messages reach patients, the public and global health professionals worldwide. Welcome to the ninth annual ISNTD Festival!
The aim of our ISNTD Festival has always been to explore the black box between the end of operational research and actual change, whether that change is at policy level or indeed at community level. This change in mindsets, behavior and ultimately policy is inevitable but it's up to us as a community to direct that change.
This year’s ISNTD Festival aims to celebrate the power of storytelling in driving change through the stories that are shaping our future.
ISNTD Showcase
The ISNTD Festival Showcase brings together outstanding material from the creative industries, the arts, science & research, and science communication on the themes of Neglected Tropical Diseases, diseases of poverty behaviour change and advocacy.
Discover the ISNTD Showcase here and the rich and varied approaches developed to explain, share and tackle some of the most complex issues in neglected tropical diseases across numerous formats and media, from film and photo, to books, apps and gaming, audio, theatre, art, behaviour change campaigns and much more!
ISNTD Festival Awards
Each year, the ISNTD Festival brings together some of the most exciting creative work aiming to tackle complex challenges in tropical and infectious diseases. These projects are entered for consideration as part of the ISNTD Festival Awards. Please email Marianne Comparet (comparetm@isntd.org) to enter the 2025 ISNTD Festival Awards.
The awards we give out are for film, tv, radio, print, campaigns, comics, apps, gaming, theatre and are broad categories so that we can include the widest possible spectrum of amazing communication efforts worldwide.
Links to previous ISNTD Festivals
ISNTD Festival 2022 , ISNTD Festival 2021 , ISNTD Festival 2020 , ISNTD Festival: 2018 , ISNTD Festival 2017
Programme
Presentations and panel discussion will be running April 2-3, 2025, online from 8:30-16:00 UTC. This event is free to attend; please register in the box above or email comparetm@isntd.org directly. Please note that we have an extended deadline for submissions of material on March 28th, 2025.
This year's sessions will cover:
- Art, science communication & infectious diseases showcase (from film to photography via poetry, apps and podcasts)
- Ethical storytelling & neglected tropical diseases
- Affected persons and communicating about neglected diseases
- Film club
- Creative approaches to community engagement
- Book panel
Please look out for our detailed programme coming soon!
Day 1 | ISNTD Festival 2025 | Wednesday 2nd April
11.00-12.30 UTC+1 | From community voices to social listening: hearing health priorities for effective policy
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Diya Banerjee (Team Lead, Social Media & Media Monitoring, World Health Organization)
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Nadine van Dongen (Founder, Patient Intelligence Panel, PIPHealth)
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Gemma Aellah (Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Black Box of Policy project)
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Helmi Hietanen & Lorraine Pfavayi (Parasite Immuno-epidemiology Group, University of Edinburgh & TIBA Partnership)
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Jessica Robbins (Leishmaniasis Advocacy Network)
13.00-14.30 UTC+1 | From Storytelling Lab to Impact: The Role of Collaboration in Creative Bilharzia Solutions
This session will explore the journey and impact of the Bilharzia Storytelling Lab, a creative initiative led by Merck that brings local voices together to co-design powerful, community-based solutions for schistosomiasis education and prevention. Using storytelling as a tool for behavior change, the Lab empowers communities – especially high-risk populations - to recognize symptoms early, understand how the disease spreads, and adopt practices that help prevent infection. The session will be highly interactive, featuring live audience polls and dynamic panel discussions with partners from Rwanda and Ethiopia. Audience are invited to reflect, engage, and contribute to a conversation on how creativity, collaboration, and local ownership can strengthen behavior change approaches across the NTD space.
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Namita Ullegaddi (Implementation Manager, Schistosomiasis Franchise, Global Health & Health Equity, Merck KGaA)
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Ladislas Nshimiyimana (Acting Director, NTDs and Other Parasitic Diseases Unit - Rwanda Biomedical Centre)
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Dr Eugene Ruberanziza (Director, Programs – The END Fund, Rwanda)
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Dr Eric Niyongira (IoT Coordinator – Rwanda NGOs Forum)
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Anteneh Mekonnen (Multisectoral Coordinator - Ministry of Health, Ethiopia)
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Julie Traerup (Communications Project Manager – Dalberg Media)
15.00-16.30 UTC+1 | Behind the scenes!
Meet the exciting scientists-turned-creators behind films and outreach projects in Neglected Tropical Diseases, and find out more about their work and impact.
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Conor Caffrey (Center for Discovery and Innovation in Parasitic Diseases, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California San Diego)
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Tarsicius Edem Dorpenyo (Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research)
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Ilan Moss (Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, DNDi)
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Wangari Wambui, Noelia Valderrama & Benjamin André (Action Towards Reducing Aquatic snail-borne Parasitic diseases, ATRAP citizen science project)
Day 2 | ISNTD Festival 2025 | Thursday 3rd April
8.30-10.00 UTC+1 | Tackling bias and power imbalances with NTD storytelling
Photo credit: Subin Adhikari/ The Leprosy Mission Nepal
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Subin Adhikari (The Leprosy Mission Nepal & NNN)
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Rachel Erskine (Global Marketing Communications Manager, Amref Health Africa)
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Abimbola Ogundairo (Advocacy and Campaigns Lead, Africa No Filter)
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Diah Dwiandani (Special Assistant to Regional Director and Communications Specialist, Ford Foundation)
The session focuses on the power imbalances and inherent biases that is visible in storytelling across the charity sector. The way we talk about the development sector at large, the way we discuss and write about Aid, and the stories we tell to share about our impact and the work that we do across the globe. Words like neglected, vulnerable, and marginalized communities, are prevalent across the sector, and most of us will have seen the all too familiar charity appeals showing an African child with a seemingly full stomach and flies on their face.
10.15-11.45 UTC+1 | Book panel: From Crisis to Resilience, Stories of Pandemics, Pathogens, and Humanity
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Jonathan Kennedy (Centre for Public Health and Policy, Queen Mary University of London)
Pathogenesis: How Germs Made History
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Kate Kelland (Chief Scientific Writer, CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations)
Disease X: The 100 Days Mission to End Pandemics
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Vivianne Ihekweazu (Managing Director, Nigeria Health Watch)
An Imperfect Storm: A Pandemic and the Coming of Age of a Nigerian Institution (authored by Chikwe Ihekweazu (Assistant Director General, World Health Organization, WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence) & Vivianne Ihekweazu (Managing Director, Nigeria Health Watch)
12.00-13.30 UTC+1 | Creative approaches to neglected tropical diseases
From art to games and films to poetry, join us and discover a wealth of creative approaches to science communication and public engagement in Neglected Tropical Diseases.
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Joseph Samuel (Noma song composer & Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Sokoto Noma Children’s Hospital)
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Joanna Butler (Medical & Scientific Illustrator & Director of Medical Artist Ltd)
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Jade Wong (Poet and One Health Epidemiologist)
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Dorothy Juma (Snakebite Project Coordinator, Access to Medicines Platform Kenya)
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Helen Price (Keele University & ECLIPSE Project, Empowering people with Cutaneous Leishmaniasis: Intervention Programme to improve patient journey and reduce Stigma via Community Education)
14.00-15.30 UTC+1 | Film club
Special screening and Q&A: The Fly Collectors
Join us for a screening of The Fly Collectors, a film by Jeff Arak, produced by the END Fund with support from Reaching the Last Mile. This award-winning short documentary highlights the history of river blindness control and elimination in West Africa, providing a unique look into the dedication, partnership, and cross-sector collaboration needed to meet the World Health Organization’s goals for ending NTDs. A Q&A and discussion will follow the screening.
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Professor Daniel Boakye (Senior Technical Advisor, Programs, The END Fund & Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research)
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Jeff Arak (Director, The Fly Collectors)
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Greg Porter (Senior Associate Director, Global Communications, The END Fund)
Special screening and Q&A: The Revival of Hope, Hope in the Battle Against Mosquito-Borne Disease in the Aburrá Valley, Colombia
This film charts the impact of the World Mosquito Program's Wolbachia method in the Aburrá Valley, Colombia. This video highlights the tangible results of WMP efforts in the region, demonstrating the positive changes and improvements within the community. WMP's goal is to share inspiring stories from Aburrá Valley that can motivate other communities and stakeholders worldwide to engage in similar collaborative efforts.
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Bruno Col (Global Communications Director, World Mosquito Program)
The International Society for Neglected Tropical Diseases
