Connecting Children, Building Bridges
The international 2013 ChildFund Connect Family Film Festival launched this week, involving young filmmakers from around the world.
ChildFund Australia, with support from AUSAID, is spearheading the project to connect students in Australia with their peers in other countries. More than 700 children from Australia and from ChildFund's programs in Brazil, Ecuador, Laos, Timor-Leste, Sri Lanka and Vietnam submitted films for the festival, exploring the theme of "family" and the role it plays in their lives. Over the next few weeks, film festival events will be held in all seven countries with the participation of the children, their families and communities.
Maria Jose de Carvalho Soares, with ChildFund Timor-Leste, explains that the project has three important aims for children:
Develop media literacy skills by creating and sharing stories with other children through film, photography, writing and cartoons.
Learn about the world by connecting with children in other countries.
Feel more confident communicating on issues that are important to them.
More than 100 students from grades 6-7 at Suai Loro Primary School in Timor-Leste have taken part in ChildFund Connect since February.
“For us, this is our first experience, and it is amazing because we’re free to express ourselves with the capabilities we have," says Dirce, 12, a student at Suai Loro. "The one thing we like from this program is that we can choose for ourselves and make decisions about the results of our work to be published. This program also teaches and trains us on how to make good decisions and quality films that can be published to others. This is very important to us; although we’re children, our voices can also be heard by others through our work."
