Changing Poverty in Kenya — Through the Lens of a Milton Keynes Multimedia Designer by Paul Sheppard: Isnare.com Free Articles
two-man crew from Milton Keynes web and graphic design company ADD Creative has just spent one week filming the transformation of a Kenyan village from living close to poverty.
‘Chakama village is about 40 miles from the glamour of the tourist capital Malindi,’ says ADD Creative producer Paul Sheppard. ‘But it might as well be light-years away.’
‘It is right on the cusp of Tsavo East National Park, which draws hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists each year. But the only chance they will have of seeing the realities of village life is in the documentary we helped produce.’
The realities are harsh.
‘Chakama’s 2,000 or so villagers scrape a living from various hard manual jobs such as making charcoal, the average villager lives on one dollar a day,’ says Paul. ‘Many children who are under 16 years of age spend their days doing some of the jobs the adults do Botanical Slim , such as carrying litres of water 9 miles back from a stream. It’s back-breaking work, and, when I tried it, 10 Sammy left me standing.’
Not one of the children has ever really had an education that could give them hope of a brighter future.
Six months ago, Paul heard, by chance through director Toby Hagen, of the work that Milan-based charity fundraiser Karibuvillage.com has been doing at Chakama.
‘I was so impressed by what they are doing to provide a poor village with a self-sustaining future, I wanted to help Fruta Planta Capsules ,’ he says. ‘But, as a relatively new design company — we have only been going for one year – the amount of actual cash we could have chipped in would not have gone very far towards the building of a school and things like a well and water distribution system.
‘So we took a leaf out of Chakama’s own book — where all of the rehabilitation work is being done by the villagers themselves, not by outside aid workers — and offered to produce, without charge, a one-hour documentary showing exactly what’s happening there and the hardships the villagers have to endure.’
Guido Rocca Zi Xiu Tang Bee Pollen Pill , one of the Italian fundraiser’s project directors, leapt at the opportunity to bring its work to a global audience.
‘We have been working in places like Chakama for 2 years,’ says Guido, ‘but have always been too busy to try and develop larger scale publicity material that would make raising even more cash easier.’ Paul, who is 28, and film director and cameraman Toby Hagen spent one week in Chakama.
‘We became part of the village,’ says Paul. ‘We got to know delightful children like six-year-old Kazungu and his brother Jumwa as well as we did the village chief Macdonald.’
‘The children really captured our hearts and minds.’ remembers Paul. ‘Sammy was a 10 year old boy who was given the task of building a hut for his family and during this process he was cut on his leg. As no antiseptic medicine is available, his uncle James began to rub juice from a local plant onto the cut’. The need for education and medicine will be very important, most of the natural remedies have no medicinal properties at all, clean water and knowledge would go along way to providing a better quality of life.
Paul then goes on to say, ‘People’s perception of Kenya can be of incredible safaris, wildlife and tourism. But the tourist industry only helps to a degree. The resource it creates scarcely reaches out into the wilderness, where tens of thousands of people live.’
‘The reality is that Kenya still has basic everyday problems. It really is a fine line between life and death there. But exactly how fundamental change can be wrought, without incurring vast expense, is what ADD Creative’s documentary will show.’
What did Paul learn most from the trip?
‘It is that, sometimes, just offering money to projects like Chakama isn’t right for the situation. We offered to help with our expertise — and actually contributed much, much more.’
ADD Creative will be showing a trailer soon on its web site www.add-creative.co.uk and currently has a selection of images of the shoot to give people an idea of their work out in the field.
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ADD CREATIVE
64 Abbey Road, Bradwell Village Milton Keynes, MK13 9AR Tel: 01908 222606 email: info@add-creative.co.uk
Contact: Paul Sheppard at ADD Creative on 01908 222606 or 07515 555051.