Project Kenya: Faces behind the stories

http://www.alfa8.com/wp/2007/02/26/kenya/

This is a short film that Illiad my partner on my recent trip to Kenya produced.
We visited the Khaame group, a community based initiative set up to help HIV orphaned children based in the Eastern Province of Kenya. The initiative has helped single parents by giving the women jobs making baskets and the men jobs weaving ropes. The profits they make on the selling of the baskets and ropes is then shared amongst the orphans and their families. In addition, on World AIDS day they make special HIV ribbons which you will see on the models and volunteers in the show.

The impact of the profit share isn’t just a direct benefit to the children’s life, but to everyone around them. Parents can afford to send their children to school, pay health costs and even educate themselves. In addition community based initiatives like this one are also teaching people how to save and manage their earnings and giving them access to newspapers or radios, little things that we take for granted.

The film presentation is entitled the Faces behind the stories and starts by presenting the community from which the Khaame basket weavers come from, and it ends by specific images of orphans and a family that have benefited as a result of the group’s efforts.

Initiatives like this give people the dignity to help themselves out of poverty, and in turn help those around them in the community. Young people can grow up knowing how to make a living instead of holding out their hands for charity. We can see that the small amount of money we spend on a piece of clothing or jewelry can have a massive impact on these producers, their family’s lives and their community lives.