Filming 2 social media videos about youth-led, climate change initiatives for UNICEF
As part of Kitty Van Der Heidjen’s visit to Siem Reap, I was asked to produce 2, short social media videos to showcase the young people’s climate-led initiatives.
The request was made on the second morning of the shoot, which didn’t give us much time, but the UNICEF communications team had a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve and everyone was in agreement that the young people’s campaigns were impressive. It was important to give young people a voice and the videos would be a strong tool for advocacy.
We decided to make two short videos. One about Fantastic 5, a group of five girls who had created an app to educate people about plastic use and deforestation.
The second video featured 3 of the young people’s campaigns including Fantastic 5, YOSO, a project about solar power and campaign about reducing the use of plastic in the community.
Fantastic 5
In Cambodia, it’s not uncommon for people to take videos and upload them to their own platforms. While it’s a complement for Apsara to post the video, the adverts for energy drinks they added aren’t really appropriate for the content!
Video showcasing 3 youth-led climate initiatives
Kitty Van Der Heidjen will be leading a UNICEF delegation to the COP29 conference in Azerbaijan and there will be representation from Cambodia.
My hope is that the videos can be shown at the conference and hopefully they can make a small change to give young people a voice at the table. It’s important that more resources are made available to support young people as ultimately the future of the planet is theirs.
Videographing Kitty Van Der Heidjen’s visit to Siem Reap for UNICEF
It was a pleasure to be contacted by UNICEF to make a video of Kitty Van Der Heidjen’s visit to Siem Reap. UNICEF’s communications department are always easy to work with. They have a clear vision of what they want to achieve. They provided me with a solid brief that we went over during pre-production so everyone was clear on what the outputs would be.
Kitty Van Der Heidjen is the Deputy Executive Director of Partnerships for UNICEF. She visited a school in Siem Reap to see how UNICEF has been supporting the life skill development for young people.
In the morning we visited a school and the students made presentations about their campaigns to raise awareness about the environment and climate change.
Kitty was impressed by what she saw. ‘I have been completely amazed by what I saw. In front of me on the podium, I had 12-year-olds, mostly girls, by the way, who were talking about climate change,’ she said.
‘They were talking about what they saw in their community. They were talking about what they saw in their community in terms of how that is impacting their lives. and the need to collect waste and the need to recycle waste,’ she added.
Kitty was also impressed by the tree planting campaign run by the students, ‘They were talking about planting trees and making sure that the trees were well-maintained, so that we could actually do something about climate change.’
In the afternoon we visited the communities to see the positive changes the young people’s projects had created.
‘A big part of what they are doing is not just talking about this in their classroom, but really talking to their parents, talking to other classmates, talking to their communities and making change happen,’ said Kitty.
It was a challenging shoot as Siem Reap was suffering from a heatwave and a severe drought that was taking away vital income from the communities surrounding the school.
‘The village pond, where they would take tourists to go on a boat ride is gone,’ said Kitty.
While the situation is dire, it was great to see youth-led initiatives making such a positive impact in their communities. Hopefully UNICEF can expand their work in this area both in Cambodia and globally and Kitty can mobilise more youth to join the Green Rising movement.
You can see more examples of my work with UNICEF here and here.
On Location in Stung Treng with UNICEF – NGO filmmaker on a case study
While filming an overview video for Generation Future, part of the assignment was to work as an NGO filmmaker to focus on Panha, a girl who joined the Code for Girls programme to work as a student volunteer.
Code for Girls is a project for girls to to learn about coding and engineering, which are both STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects.
It’s important to encourage girls to participate in STEM subjects as they’re often seen as subjects more suited to boys.
‘Most of the time, girls’ parents don’t let them study STEM subjects,’ says Panha.
‘After completing high school, I’d like to go to university. I’d like to study IT or engineering,’ she adds.
Panha has been interested in robotics since she was young and Code for Girls is a great opportunity for her to learn more.
‘I’ve been interested in this since I was 10. I found out about it on YouTube. There are so many things to watch,’ she says.
‘It’s predominantly men who make robots, but I think women can make them as well. If male students can study IT, why can't girls?’ she adds.
This has been a great opportunity to learn new skills.
‘The most interesting part was drawing a 3D model on the computer. After creating our designs, we got to print them on a 3D printer. I’m really happy, because I’ve never done anything like this before,’ she say.
Over the coming months, Panha will work with her project leaders and peers to train other students as part of the project.
‘I’d like to be able to provide training for girls like me. to improve their skillset and for them to
understand how to put what I teach into practice,’ she says.
‘I would like to encourage all girls to be confident in studying STEM subjects. They can be role models for the next generation of girls to look up to,’ she adds.
I look forward to catching up with Panha in a few months’ time, when we’ll be making a follow up video to see the progress she’s made and how she’s managed to train and empower other girls in her community.
You can read more about the other Generation Future video I made here.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need an NGO filmmaker to work on any upcoming projects
On assignment as an NGO videographer for UNICEF in Stung Treng
I’d worked as an NGO videographer on a Generation Future video for UNICEF a couple of years ago, so it’s always good to get the call to come back and make a follow up video to show how the programme has progressed / evolved.
We filmed the last video in Siem Reap Province. This time the location was Stung Treng Province with a focus on female empowerment and getting more girls involved in STEM subjects (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
This area where girls are underrepresented. They can also face barriers when trying to study STEM subjects.
Four Generation Future projects, Code for Girls, Cyclo Day, Meakea and RULErs, ran workshops to recruit and train 48 student volunteers from 4 schools in Stung Treng Province. All the groups featured female trainers and female student volunteers.
‘Code For Girls is a project that encourages girls to learn about coding and engineering,
which are both STEM subjects,’ says Sereny, the Code for Girls project leader.
‘We want them to use coding and 3D printing to come up with solutions to solve everyday problems,’ she adds.
‘I really enjoyed learning how to draw 2D and 3D models. I’ve never done this before,’ says Sovy, one of the student volunteers.
‘I've learnt a lot of new skills and gained a lot of new knowledge,’ she adds.
‘I’d like to see all Cambodian girls being confident and assured in the decisions they make,’ she concludes, which is a sentiment we can all agree with.
It was great working with the future generation of trainers and volunteers. Living in a country with such a young demographic, it’s essential that the younger generation, especially girls, learn leaderships skills and demand a voice in the decision-making process.
You can see the last video I made for Genreation Future here and more examples of my NGO videography work here.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have an NGO videography you would like to discuss.