Art . Illustration . Nature . Wellbeing

Participatory Film Making

Somaliland 2010, South Sudan 2013

'Girls' Writes' was a project implemented by Africa Educational Trust (AET) in Somaliland and South Sudan. We trained primary and secondary school girls to produce their own documentary films about issues that were important to them as girls in their respective countries. The project enabled the girls to explore and discuss topics that they would not normally be allowed to talk about, just because they are girls. 

I worked with AET to manage the project in both Somaliland and South Sudan, including facilitating the training in Somaliland and organising the mobile cinema initiative and film screening events in South Sudan.

Film topics from Somaliand: Female genital mutilation; Forced migration; The impact of having an illiterate mother; The link between education and poverty.

Topics from South Sudan: Forced/early marriage; Girls' responsibilities in the home; School drop out.

The films were shared with local communities and local authorities through a mobile cinema initiative, accompanied by post screening discussion forums. At a national level, the South Sudan films were screened at the launch of DFID's Girls' Education project, the EU film festival, and a UNESCO and Save the Children training for Ministry of Education Directors.