Reality of the eight Millennium Development Goals in Angola

Participatory video-project on womens empowerement

Background:

This pilot project focused on transmitting knowledge concerning theory and practice of participatory video for 20 young women from the association UCF ( Female Christian Union/União Cristã feminine) which is part of the global network of the Christian Association of young women (YWCA).
The future videos should revolve around the reality of the participants in relation to the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); an United Nations agreement and action plan that the Angolan government signed up to and which should be implemented by the end of 2015.

Activities:

• Explanation of the eight MDGs with focus on Angola and its inhabitants
• Introduction to the basic principles of video production including various practical exercises
• Various video-content-discussions with final agreement to produce four videos on the following MDG-topics:
  
  
  • Removal of extreme poverty and hunger
  • Promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women
  • Combat of HIV / AIDS, malaria and other diseases
  
  
  • Elaboration of four scripts
  • Production of various interviews, narrations and video-images
  • Presentation of the four films at the UCFs own local cinema

Results & Impact:

• Production of four videos concerning the eight Millenium development Goals
• Screening of the videos at various conferences and during many meetings within the neighbouring "bairros" (parts of the city) for educational purposes.
• Raise of confidence and self esteem of the girls who were deeply proud of their achievements and expressed interest to continue working with video to share knowledge within their neighborhood and further afield.
• At the end of the same year four girls of the team "Press Media Winner" independently filmed the closing ceremony of UCF and interviewed in a campaign regarding domestic violence diverse participants; amongst them also a representative of the Angolan Interior Ministry (video to be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFae3S32qfA)