Knowledge CategoriesClassifieds |
Average Rating: no ratings submitted
God's WaterCountryMalawi, Tanzania, United States RegionAfrica, North America Programme SummaryGod's Water is a documentary project that tells the story of Tom Logan of the USA-based ecumenical organisation Marion Medical Mission (MMM), who is working with Africans to create their own sustainable source of safe drinking water through a community-based shallow well programme. "God's Water is a humanitarian - adventure biography that captures the inspiring story of an ordinary man who commits his life to extraordinary service"; its aim is to tell a story of hope, and to show how a relatively small amount of money, if well spent, can go a long way with lasting results. The one-hour film is a production of Wild Rose Pictures, Inc. and is affiliated with Documentary Educational Resources (DER) of Watertown, MA, USA, a nonprofit organisation founded to help distribute cross-cultural documentary films for educational use. Communication StrategiesThis programme uses the medium of digital video to share the experience of African villagers working together to address water and sanitation issues threatening their health and well-being. The one-hour programme takes an intimate journey along with Tom Logan - African missionary, entrepreneur and social radical - across the east-African country of Malawi. Logan is working with Malawian villagers to bring a sustainable supply of safe drinking water and key educational and medical services to areas that in some places have no paved roads or electrical power. As part of Logan's strategy, village residents supply the primary labour to build shallow wells; as villagers dig wells, crush stone, and mold bricks, MMM provides the cement, pipe, and pump (MMM makes a US$300 investment in expertise and materials). With an eye toward self-sufficiency and a sense of community ownership, groups of villages select one or two individuals to be trained in the maintenance of each well. Logan and his associates describe themselves as committed to working with villagers in a way that values their culture, ideas, feelings, and hopes. Recently MMM and Logan conducted training sessions for volunteers in the United States who will be traveling to Malawi later in 2005 to participate in the shallow well programme. Cross-cultural collaboration is a project theme; the USA-based independent filmmaker working on this project will join Logan as he travels to Malawi and Tanzania in October 2005 to motivate and support additional shallow well initiatives. The documentary itself combines location video and interviews with Logan, his associates, and his Malawian friends, along with archival images and an original indigenous musical soundtrack. Development IssuesClean Water. Key PointsOrganisers are convinced that this story is especially timely; in 2005 United Nations declared the next ten years as the "Water for Life" Decade, with the goal of greatly increasing the availability of safe drinking water to the world's economically poorest people. The independent filmmaker working on God's Water suggests that "the viewer will gain hope in the human spirit through the collaborative efforts of people of different countries and cultures working together in a way that empowers communities by creating their own safe water supply, and giving them the collective courage to seek solutions to other critical community issues. It will show Americans accomplishing good deeds, working hand-in-hand with Africans who are willing and capable of improving their lives through hard work and cooperation. Hopefully, the viewers will be inspired to work on challenging issues for positive change in their own neighborhoods and around the world." Organisers assert that "cholera - once rampant in these villages - has disappeared everywhere a shallow well has been built." PartnersMMM, Wild Rose Pictures, DER. ContactMMM, Wild Rose Pictures, DER.
Mark S. Ducker
Producer/Director Wild Rose Pictures, Inc. 1151 Michigan Avenue, Suite 108 East Lansing, MI 48823 USA Tel.: (517) 337-1700 x114 mark@wildrosepictures.com info@wildrosepictures.com SourceEmail from Mark S. Ducker to The Communication Initiative on August 1 2005. Placed on the Communication Initiative site May 15 2007 Last Updated September 21 2007 |
Login / RegisiterPollICT4D News |