WORKSHOPS
“I’ll Tell You My Story” creates a safe, supportive and educational environment that honors each participant for their individuality. The participants write short stories as they gain trust in the group. They learn photography skills and how to imagine their stories in both literal and abstract ways. Once these individual photo essays are developed, the group creates an idea for a short film. According to their own interests, the girls are assigned crew positions and spend a day filming. This provides the opportunity to delve more deeply into their own thoughts, while learning to work as a productive group in a new community. We hope it helps them take an important step from survival mode towards a life that they feel is of their own creation.
We hope their stories will inspire you too.
2022 | Adjumani, Uganda
From the time we arrived in this camp, life has been hard.
15 girls from South Sudan tell stories of their heavy responsibilities as survivors of the wars that force them back and forth across the border into Ugandan camps. Eldest daughters become mothers of young siblings, build mud huts, search for food, and walk for miles for work. They dream of escaping instability, going to school, and having fulfilling careers.
Documentary Short | Adjumani Stories
2020 | Kampala, Uganda
And myself, because of the things I saw, I am also under a big trauma.
In Uganda, we worked with girls who escaped violence alongside family members. They fled Congo, Somalia, Northern Uganda, and Burundi. Many of their stories are about the shattering of domestic stability. Sisters sacrifice their safety for each other, mothers become heroes after the loss of fathers and brothers. Extraordinary young women contemplate how to make something of the lives they’ve been handed.
Documentary Short | I Want to Be Home Again
2018 | Nairobi, Kenya
I will help orphaned children like me.
While grieving their families and countries, girls from Somalia, South Sudan, Kenya, and the DRC were studious, imaginative, and reflective. They dreamt of returning home to countries that are safe again, of going to school, of finding their families alive, despite intense fears of being re-victimized.
Documentary Short | Ndoto
2017 | Nairobi, Kenya
We hid in the forest for a year. Terrorists and wild animals chased us.
15 girls told epic stories of running, moving, and hiding to survive war, sex trafficking, and kidnapping. This year, the girls were strong and emotional; many were still in dangerous living situations. The work they did is filled with transformation, both hopeful and desperate, and tells their powerful stories of survival.
Documentary Short | A Sister’s Voice
2016 | Nairobi, Kenya
My name is not Refugee.
In our first workshop, 15 orphaned refugee girls from Burundi, Eritrea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda shared stories of militia kidnappings, genocidal violence, and horrific assaults. Experiences were translated from girl to girl, French to English to Kiswahili to Lingala as we began to know and understand every girl beyond the label: Refugee.
