 |
Amie Kandeh speaks to girls in Freetown about staying focused on their studies.
Photo: Melissa Winkler/IRC
|
Let's discuss the strengths and the problems with the film. What follows is from one of the websites for the film *here*:
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into
Opportunity for Women Worldwide
A special presentation of Independent Lens.
Watch part one online through October 8 and part two through October 9.A landmark transmedia project featuring a four-hour PBS primetime national and international broadcast event (check local listings), a Facebook-hosted social action game, mobile games, two websites, educational video modules with companion text, a social media campaign supporting over 30 partner NGOs, and an impact assessment plan all inspired by Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, the widely acclaimed book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide was filmed in 10 countries and follows Kristof, WuDunn, and celebrity activists America Ferrera, Diane Lane, Eva Mendes, Meg Ryan, Gabrielle Union, and Olivia Wilde on a journey to tell the stories of inspiring, courageous individuals. Across the globe oppression is being confronted, and real meaningful solutions are being fashioned through health care, education, and economic empowerment for women and girls. The linked problems of sex trafficking and forced prostitution, gender-based violence, and maternal mortality — which needlessly claim one woman every 90 seconds — present to us the single most vital opportunity of our time: the opportunity to make a change. All over the world women are seizing this opportunity.
Edna Adan
Edna Adan was raised in Somaliland in an
educated and wealthy family, and went on to a distinguished
international career with the World Health Organization. But after
retiring, Adan returned to her roots and opened Somaliland’s first
maternal health facility.
Read more >>
Urmi Basu
Urmi Basu is the founder of New Light, a
secular nonprofit charitable trust that has set up a shelter to protect
and educate young girls, children and women at high risk of commercial
sexual exploitation.
Read more >>
Amie Kandeh
Amie Kandeh is the Women's Protection and
Empowerment Coordinator for the International Rescue Committee in Sierra
Leone. After fleeing Sierra Leone with her family during the country’s
civil war, Kandeh returned in 2002 to put her skills as an educator and
counselor to use in rebuilding the country.
Read more >>
Rebecca Lolosoli
Rebecca Lolosoli is the matriarch of the
Umoja Women's Village and an advocate for women's rights. Growing up as a
member of the Samburu tribe, Lolosoli attended primary school and then
nursing school but dropped out early on due to lack of money to pay the
fees.
Read more >>
Somaly Mam
Somaly Mam was born in an ethnic minority
community in Cambodia's Mondulkiri province, and grew up as an orphan
living in extreme poverty. A man posing as her grandfather sold Somaly
as a young girl into sexual slavery.
Read more >>
Ingrid Munro
Ingrid Munro is a Swedish national who worked
for eight years for the Swedish government in the Bureau of Housing
Research. Following this, she began her career as an advocate for the
poor in Kenya, pressing for their right to housing as a staff member of
Habitat and the head of African Housing Fund, an advocacy group for the
homeless.
Read more >>
Jane Ngoiri
Jane Ngoiri grew up in the slums of Nairobi
and dropped out of school after the eighth grade. She married at age 18,
but when she was pregnant with her second child, her husband took a
second wife and she soon found herself with three younger children,
pushed out of her home and with no money.
Read more >>
John Wood
John Wood is the founder and board chair of
Room to Read. He started Room to Read after a career with Microsoft from
1991 to 1999, where he was in charge of marketing and business
development teams throughout Asia, including serving as director of
business development for the Greater China region and as director of
marketing for the Asia-Pacific region.
Read more >>
So let's talk about this film and the activism.
