Harambee: Pulling together for positive change

Directors of Change participants share their filmmaking tips with the children in Kenya

In the spring of 2007, 12 Ontario youth travelled to Kenya as part of a new Free The Children program called Directors of Change.

Working with an experienced filmmaker in Kenya, the students learned how to storyboard, interview and shoot a short documentary film. After many months of hard work, the final cut is at last ready for viewing!

The film, entitled Harambee, is a 15-minute documentary exploring some of the challenges facing the Kipsigi and Maasai communities in rural Kenya. For Vanika Chawla, student filmmaker, travelling to Kenya to volunteer and film the documentary gave her a fresh perspective on the world and brought to life the troubling statistics she hears so often.

“The billions of people that couldn’t access clean water were no longer numbers—they were our friends,” says Vanika.

They were no longer just numbers, they were family

The film explores a variety of issues common to communities across Africa—access to education, health and sanitation, HIV/AIDS, gender roles and rural poverty—tied together through the central theme of working as a team to affect positive change. Harambee, a Swahili word meaning “pulling together,” epitomizes the film’s theme and is the official Kenyan motto.

Harambee will be screened in classrooms across North America as a means of creating discussion between students and encouraging youth to take action towards global citizenship. The film is a true example of how young people can combine passion and creativity to educate and inspire one another to truly change the world.

Helpful Hints from Helpful Links

Find out more about Directors of Change
Learn how you can support international projects through the Adopt a Village campaign
Take part in a Leaders Today International Volunteer Trip to Kenya

Free The Children is the largest network of children helping children through education in the world, with more than one million youth involved in our innovative education and development programs in 45 countries. Founded by international child rights activist Craig Kielburger, Free The Children has an established track-record of success, with three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize and partnerships with the United Nations and Oprah’s Angel Network.