The mentorship programmes for jury and press were a great way for the children to learn given the duration of the festival. The children learned while ‘on the job’. The production workshop gave the kids an understanding of what it entails to work on a production. At the end of the week the children had watched and judged over 30 films (Children’s Jury), written four articles (Press Programme) and produced 3 short animations (Production Workshop). Children are very good at adapting to new situations, so the young participants were keen to learn and to absorb new information, while learning about each others’ cultures. It is true that it is always best to catch them young. Getting passports for some of the children was very difficult. We worked closely with their caregivers, children’s homes and the Registrar General’s Office to secure them and in the end succeeded. However, one participant, Foster, had to be replaced with another, Bree, because the Passport Office refused to release his travel document saying his father had to sign for them. The boy’s father went to South Africa years ago and could not be contacted. It was fortunate that the children were able to travel with a chaperone, thanks to the grant from Art Moves Africa. The chaperone, Isabel, was able to make sure the children were never inconvenienced. Mai Jai has seen the benefits of this trip on our young participants from our Postcards from Zimbabwe programme. We are currently fundraising and planning a trip to Madagascar next year. The children who went to Kenya will now be youth mentors for the new group of children. We also managed to make contact with organisations that we plan to keep in contact with so that Postcards can find new channels for distribution and exchange. This is an excellent time in history for Zimbabweans to interact with other Africans and share knowledge and ideas.
Année : 2008
Profile :
Sexe :
Projet:
Participation in Lola Screen Festival held at two locations, the Kenya National Theatre and Alliance Francaise. These locations were ideal. There were some really good films screened from all over the world dealing with diverse issues that relate to children. The facilitators and mentors had a great deal of experience and have been working in film for a while. They were able to work with the children successfully.
Session
Type de projet
Départ: Harare, Zimbabwe (Southern Africa)
Destination : Nairobi, Kenya (East Africa)