Our programs: Evening Feature Screenings
FilmAid projects films and videos onto a large screen fixed on the side of a truck in open air spaces throughout the camps. The feature presentation is preceded by a short educational film, classic cartoons, and a public service announcement. The majority of films are produced regionally and deal with a variety of topics relevant to refugees, such as conflict resoluction, landmine risk, HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence. These screenings have attracted as many as 33,000 refugees in one night.
Daytime Educational Screenings
In collaboration with other humanitarian organizations, FilmAid holds screening sessions in community centers, schools, and health centers throughout the camp followed by facilitated discussions on vital topics of concern to the participants. These screenings present a forum where refugees can feel comfortable discussing otherwise taboo subjects
My Reel Life: The Participatory Video Project (PVP)
FilmAid works with young adults in the camps teaching them basic camera and editing skills in an effort to help them tell their own stories through video. Through this program, we develop the participants' self-esteem while providing hands-on skills training and a means of communicating within their community.
Targeted messaging
FilmAid produces and distributes video messages specific to local issues and circumstances, such as repatriation and HIV/AIDS. Camp residents actively participate in the creation of these videos, responding to an immediate, unmet need for locally relevant messaging.
Employment and Training
FilmAid International employs refugees to operate its programs. In FilmAid's East Africa programs, for example, FilmAid employs only two expatriates who work with some 25 national employees and 75 refugee staff. As the programs develop, the local and refugee staff assumes increasing responsibility.
"We encourage people to go watch the films. We want FilmAid to continue. It promotes prevention of disease and education of the young."
- Aret Mayen, Sudanese Refugee, Kakuma Camp, Kenya
"FilmAid International, through its innovative work of screening films in refugee camps, makes a significant difference in the daily lives of refugees"
Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General, United Nations
In 1999, when Kosovo was just coming into our daily consciousness with reports of impending NATO strikes, a group of concerned film professionals formed FilmAid International.
FilmAid mobilized quickly and was entertaining children and their families in the Macedonian refugee camps within weeks. FilmAid was supported and encouraged by several international relief organizations including Doctors of the World, UNICEF, International Rescue Committee (IRC) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
"Diversion is a luxury we afford ourselves without sacrifice. Why would we deprive it from refugees? Sometimes, humanitarian assistance can have a narrow emphasis on only material and physical needs. Timely and appropriate interventions like FilmAid not only have immediate relevance but may help avert a generation of emotional incapacitation..."
--Gerald Martone, Director of Emergency Response, International Rescue Committee
FilmAid's firsthand experience in Macedonia and Kosovo proved the power of the big screen: films restore hope, educate and inspire.
Following the success in the Balkans, the IRC and the UNHCR asked FilmAid International to go to Africa. Ongoing violent conflict and persecution of individuals in central and eastern Africa had forced millions of civilians to flee their homes. In the fall of 2001, FilmAid arrived in East Africa to help meet the psychosocial needs of thousands of refugees from Sudan, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Rwanda, some of whom had been in the camps for as long as 10 years. The project in East Africa continues.
Your Organization does amazing work, I hope our organization can team up out here in Southern California to establish screenings in Latin America or Asia....
Hey guys! Just showing some love to your page and letting you that i donated to your cause a few wks back and will continue to in the future..THANKS FOR WHAT U ALL ARE DOING!
Online Now!
