Another ‘News clip’ from the edit! This time a glimpse of Bianca saying NO to FGM when Nancy received the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation Award for Courage, (previously awarded to Chinese dissident and artist Weiwei)
See clip of Bianca Jagger calling for a Girl Revolution. Wave cursor here https://vimeo.com/253364650
Next year it will be the centenary celebration of when the British Suffragette’s won the right for women to vote. One hundred years on, the new frontline is in Africa and the Middle East where women may have the right to vote, but not always ownership of their bodies, or even their lives. Yet there are remarkably few films about African feminist heroines, least of all from remote African villages, especially patriarchal tribes like Nancy’s. This gives Nancy and her tribes journey, observed over many years on film, particular global relevance as a unique record of change. Like the girls Nancy has helped to save whose stories are told in the film, my life (the director) has also been irrevocably changed by meeting her.
If a Kenyan Pokot girl say’s No to FGM, she will equally be saying no to marriage and no to providing cows for her family. In the countries which practice FGM, the wealth a girl traditionally brings to a family through the marriage ‘sale’ is a core motivation for parents to cut their girls and marry them off, often to an older man. Within such cultures women are traditionally seen as property owned by men to be sold for a bride price.
Continue reading “Why do girls feel they have to say yes to FGM?”
Nancy and I are incredibly grateful for your gifts of support – from heart to heart, from grass roots to grass roots, we truly cherish our core family of donors! We also believe there is no more powerful way to help improve the world than by thousands of small acts of kindness, building the foundations for a movement for change. That is what Nancy started on that fateful day in 2010 when she stood before the chiefs and dignitaries of her tribe and made her pledge to help others! This pledge inspired me to help her too and whilst 7 years seems a vast amount of time, I feel we are closer to my goal of helping Nancy fulfil her potential to be an example and eradicate gender inequality and violence against women, particularly in the remote areas.
Continue reading “A Special Message of Thanks to All ‘Friends of Nancy’ and news on progress! “
We are independently building a movement to support the voice of women at the grassroots, funded by the grassroots! Nancy A One Girl Revolution is for all those who want to see change and be part of that change too. I love this way of building our movement, it aligns so well with the way Nancy’s story began. Her story has always been rooted in community, for once she was saved it became her passion to change her tribe. This sparked a movement inspired by the heart. The instant that Nancy pledged in public, all those years ago in 2010, that she would be a role model and lead others, changed both her life and mine forever. It was a decisive moment in both our lives. The fact that I was filming at the time and captured her inspired words sent me on a new course too.
Nancy was greeted off the plane by myself and Louise Robertson, formerly of 28 Too Many, carrying a warm coat, scarf and gloves. It was late November and she had just flown from Kenya, a country which straddles the equator! The Commonwealth Secretariat’s event was the next day and we raced to the wonderfully glamorous Malborough House, a former palace, for a rehearsal of Nancy’s speech, arriving just in time.
Continue reading “Nancy’s London visit & bride price and other home challenges – Nov 2016”
Great things may come from small beginnings, for mighty oaks from little acorns grow!
On the 21st of December 2016 with some ‘seed’ development money raised from our crowd funding and given to Nancy when she visited London – Nancy gathered together a small group of committed change-makers from various outposts off the main artery road that cuts through Central Pokot. The meeting was to make plans for when the film is ready to be screened so that it can be used to have a real impact on her tribe.