New Zealander Malcolm Trevena has scored himself a brand new Sony DV
Handycam for his inspiring entry in GVN's 'Children Breaking Free' video
competition.
Malcolm's video showcases the wonderful organisation he set up when he
volunteered with GVN in Uganda - GrassrootsUganda.com.
This friendly organisation empowers African women, giving them the
chance to make beaded jewellery, join the international market, and make
a much needed living. It is 100% FAIR TRADE and all of the products are
made by impoverished Ugandan women, many of whom are widows, HIV+ and
live in Uganda's war-torn North.
In the video Malcolm takes us on a fascinating journey showing how the
women make the beads. He also interviews the ladies so he can gather
their stories and place them on the website.
"My big idea was to help the women of Africa; to build them an online
presence, from where they could sell their goods. This will help them to
reach markets that have been traditionally well out of their reach,"
said Malcolm.
"We help them sell their crafts and all the profits we make are returned
to the ladies."
Malcolm's life now revolves around volunteerism. He is currently on a
one year teaching contract in South Korea. The money saved here will
fund a two year stay in the Philippines. He has previously volunteered
in the Philippines for six months, Ghana for two-and-a-bit months and
Uganda for six months.
"As you might of noticed, I like making videos. While in the
Philippines, I'll be putting the camera to good use to raise awareness
about the plight of the Philippines. I'll almost certainly be doing a
video about CERV (GVN's partner organisation in the Philippines) as well
as the projects I will be working on," said Malcolm.
Asa! - as the say here in Korea. A free video camera.
Sweet!
The winning video can be found at the bottom of the page. It is
the one I did for GrassRootsUganda.com, but trimmed down to five minutes
with some GVN fluff added.
One thing that the GVN press video does not mention is that there
were only two videos entered and both of them were mine!
This was the
other entry.
Do you like the work that I am doing?
Wanna help in a real and tangible way?
Then visit GrassRootsUganda.com
and purchase some crafts made by Ugandan ladies. 100% of the profits
are returned to the ladies
Questions? Comments? Try contacting
me.
Wanna receive an email whenever this site gets updated? Click here.
(c)
2005, 2006 and 2007 Malcolm Trevena.
All the stuff on this site is written by me, Malcolm Trevena. Feel free to
link to this page. Heck, you can even copy stuff from here if you
want. Just make sure you sight me as a reference.
