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.
Videographer for UNDP's Regional Office, Bangkok, Thailand
I was hired to work as a videographer by UNDP Asia and the Pacific to make a video for Human Rights Day.
The video was posted on UNDP’s social media channels and shows the journeys and hopes of 7 young human rights defenders and climate activists from across the Asia Pacific to inspire other youth to be more aware of the issues surrounding climate change.
The human rights defenders and activists hailed from across the Asia Pacific regions from countries including The Philippines, Pakistan, Nepal and India.
It was fascinating listening to the tell their stories about how the became activists and human rights defenders; the adversity they’ve faced; their optimism for the future and their suggestion for actions that youth can take across the region to increase understanding and awareness of a situation that is quickly becoming a pressing concern.
It was great to work with the UNDP team at their office in Bangkok, Thailand. It would be a pleasure to collaborate with them again on future projects.
You can see more examples of my videography work here and here.