Leading up to IFP and the United Nations Department of Public Information's ENVISION: Addressing Global Issues Through Documentaries, being held April 8th and 9th at The TimesCenter in New York City, we will be featuring guest blog posts from Envision speakers and panelists.
Our second guest blog post comes from Phil Grabsky, director of The Boy Mir: Ten Years in Afghanistan, screening on Saturday, April 8 at 10:45AM during Envision.
To view the full schedule and to purchase tickets to Envision, please visit the official website.
Phil Grabsky:
"We talked about going to Mazar in April or May but I said I would be in the USA and we'd go to Mazar in June instead. There we would see Mir and his family and sort out Mir's further education and probably a new home for the entire family. Everything seemed to be going well - the film (THE BOY MIR - TEN YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN) was starting its festival life and in a month won two awards - Santa Barbara and Washington. At Seventh Art we were all excited and I looked forward to telling Mir all about it. Then, yesterday, I turned on the news. 12 people killed, slaughtered, inside the UN compound in Mazar. 12 people who would have felt really pretty safe in that northern Afghan city. 12 people with lives ahead of them, families & friends, pasts and futures. Then murdered - for what? Because some loony pastor with no brain adds petrol to a fire that just doesn't die.... All Mir wants, all 95% of Afghans want, is an education, a job, a mobile phone, a girlfriend, a future.. Stuff. Like you and I like stuff and indeed have so much stuff we stick it in attics, lock-ups, cupboards. Have you ever had nothing? I mean nothing at all. Have you ever spent all day collecting water and ploughing a field to grow wheat for bread? No, nor have I. Why should some human beings suffer so badly while the lucky few, we lucky few, drown in excess - and we do, don't deny it. Look at your CD collection, the clothes in your cupboard, the food in your fridge, the sporting gear in the garage. Your bike, my bike, is worth more than Mir earns in a year shovelling coal, ploughing the rocky earth, collecting twigs before school. I make films to entertain, to move you, to inform you - I make films to make a difference. A tiny pebble thrown into an endless lake perhaps but if we all throw a pebble, maybe one day the shadow of movement becomes a ripple, becomes a wave and change will come. Until then, mourn those poor folk in Mazar who just wanted to help. I've no intention of having less food in my cupboard or spending less on my holidays but I, we, should work towards the day when Mir too has a fully stocked fridge and sits at his computer to book a trip to Hawaii."
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
IFP and the U.N.'s Envision Guest Blog: Kennedy Odede, President & CEO, Shining Hope for Communities
Leading up to IFP and the United Nations Department of Public Information's ENVISION: Addressing Global Issues Through Documentaries, being held April 8th and 9th at The TimesCenter in New York City, we will be featuring guest blog posts from Envision speakers and panelists.
We are proud to present our first guest blogger, Kennedy Odede, President & CEO, Shining Hope for Communities. Mr. Odede will be participating on the Envision Panel "The Role of Women in Alleviating Poverty and Hunger," taking place on Saturday, April 8th at 5:30PM.
To view the full schedule and to purchase tickets to Envision, please visit the official website.
And now, Mr. Odede:
I am very excited to speak at Envision next weekend. I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and my organization. My name is Kennedy Odede and I am the President & CEO of Shining Hope for Communities. I was born in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya, the largest slum in Africa, and lived there for twenty-three years.
Growing up in Kibera, I watched my mother struggling to feed her 8 children, I watched my sister became pregnant at 16, I watched little girls forced to sell their bodies for food. I listened to my mother, to my sisters, to my fellow community members and I know firsthand what is needed to transform my community--and it begins with women and girls.
At Shining Hope for Communities I have developed an innovative, two-step model to combat gender inequality and extreme poverty. We link tuition-free schools for girls to accessible social services for all. In 2009 we built the slum's first free school for girls, which provides a superior education to Kibera’s brightest and most at-risk girls. The second step of our model provides the community-at-large with desperately needed social services adjacent to the school. The unique services we offer include sanitary eco- toilets, a library and cyber café, gardens and food security, gender violence support, microenterprise for HIV positive women, a youth center, access to water, business and literacy training, and hundreds of jobs. We also operate a community-run health clinic that focuses on primary care and women's health, serving 1,000+ residents every month.
Our concrete link between schools for girls and community services changes the value placed on women, because community members associate desperately needed services with an institution dedicated to girls’ education. We change attitudes while improving livelihoods of the whole community. By investing in health and economic success through a school for girls, we demonstrate that benefitting women benefits the whole community, cultivating a community ethos that makes women respected members of society.
To learn more, visit www.shininghopeforcommunities.org I look forward to talking more next weekend!
We are proud to present our first guest blogger, Kennedy Odede, President & CEO, Shining Hope for Communities. Mr. Odede will be participating on the Envision Panel "The Role of Women in Alleviating Poverty and Hunger," taking place on Saturday, April 8th at 5:30PM.
To view the full schedule and to purchase tickets to Envision, please visit the official website.
And now, Mr. Odede:
I am very excited to speak at Envision next weekend. I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and my organization. My name is Kennedy Odede and I am the President & CEO of Shining Hope for Communities. I was born in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya, the largest slum in Africa, and lived there for twenty-three years.
Growing up in Kibera, I watched my mother struggling to feed her 8 children, I watched my sister became pregnant at 16, I watched little girls forced to sell their bodies for food. I listened to my mother, to my sisters, to my fellow community members and I know firsthand what is needed to transform my community--and it begins with women and girls.
At Shining Hope for Communities I have developed an innovative, two-step model to combat gender inequality and extreme poverty. We link tuition-free schools for girls to accessible social services for all. In 2009 we built the slum's first free school for girls, which provides a superior education to Kibera’s brightest and most at-risk girls. The second step of our model provides the community-at-large with desperately needed social services adjacent to the school. The unique services we offer include sanitary eco- toilets, a library and cyber café, gardens and food security, gender violence support, microenterprise for HIV positive women, a youth center, access to water, business and literacy training, and hundreds of jobs. We also operate a community-run health clinic that focuses on primary care and women's health, serving 1,000+ residents every month.
Our concrete link between schools for girls and community services changes the value placed on women, because community members associate desperately needed services with an institution dedicated to girls’ education. We change attitudes while improving livelihoods of the whole community. By investing in health and economic success through a school for girls, we demonstrate that benefitting women benefits the whole community, cultivating a community ethos that makes women respected members of society.
To learn more, visit www.shininghopeforcommunities.org I look forward to talking more next weekend!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
It's A Wrap!
Thank you to all the remarkable panelists, filmmakers and attendees who spent Saturday at “Envision: Addressing Global Issues through Documentaries.” We could not be more thrilled with the response, conversations and creative connections that were made by participants who came together to explore how to achieve universal education that is accessible and of high quality.
We will be reporting on the panels and outcomes in the coming days, but if you want to stay involved, please join our Envision list at envisionfilm.org. We'll be posting photos and videos this week, so that those who could not attend can still benefit from the conversation. In the interim, links to a couple pieces that were posted from the event here and here.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
HARRY BELAFONTE, UNICEF GOODWILL AMBASSADOR TO KEYNOTE ENVISION
You heard it first here: UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Harry Belafonte will be the keynote speaker at the second annual "Envision: Addressing Global Issues through Documentaries" forum focusing on the UN’s Millennium Development Goal of achieving universal primary education on Saturday July 10th at TheTimesCenter, 242 West 41st in New York City.
Belafonte has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 1987, and is known worldwide for his accomplishments as a recording artist and concert singer, as an actor and producer, and for his commitment to human rights. He has campaigned tirelessly for the rights of children and has been a long-time champion of abolishing primary school fees in developing nations, reducing HIV/AIDS. Belafonte received the US National Medal for the Arts, and has been widely recognized for his humanitarian work. Find his full bio here, his urging an end to school fees in Africa here and an MSNBC discussion about the importance of supporting education in developing countries here. For more about the Goodwill Ambassador program go here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)