OAKLAND — With newsrooms shrinking nationwide, youth in our communities have begun to tell their own stories.
GlobalGirl Media, a nonprofit organization that teaches teenage girls digital storytelling skills, was cofounded by award-winning filmmakers Amie Williams and Meena Nanji in Los Angeles in 2010. Williams, the organization’s executive director, eventually moved to Oakland, where she started a chapter in 2014, partnering with Youth UpRising and forming an advisory board of media professionals including actor Danny Glover.
“In the process of giving girls a voice, you introduce an alternative narrative, and you change the existing narrative,” Glover said in a GlobalGirl Media interview at their launch party in Oakland in 2014.
The organization now operates out of United Roots’ Youth Impact HUB on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland’s Koreatown Northgate neighborhood. They are truly global, with chapters in South Africa, Morocco, Kosovo, Chicago and Los Angeles. Girls in the program use Skype to bond with each other and discuss topics and issues that they face in their communities.
“We share a lot of similar ideas, and we’re all feminists, and we all have something in common that we want to strive to do,” said GGM summer academy participant Kasie Gonzalez, 17, of Berkeley.
The girls use a documentary journalistic approach to tackle controversial subjects that are relevant to them, such as teen depression and self-harm, teen pregnancy, sex-trafficking, and Black Lives Matter and other protests in Oakland. They can also choose to write and blog.
“When the camera’s in my hands, I feel invincible,” said Cheyenne Grisez, 14, of Oakland. “It just makes me feel happy. It makes me feel like I can do anything.”
Grisez was one of eight young women who took part in this summer’s academy.
“Living in Oakland is really hard. It’s a great place, a beautiful city, but just the things that are going down with all of the violence …” Grisez says before trailing off.
On the final day of the summer academy, Williams worked with Grisez, Gonzalez and Camila Prado, 15, of Berkeley, on a short film about Prado’s battle with bulimia. In the film, Prado bravely interviewed her parents and sister about how she was able to overcome her depression and eating disorder. They also went out on the streets of Oakland and asked women to rate their bodies. This film and others the girls made were shown to parents and friends on the last day of the academy at the end of July, as their hard work was celebrated.
“It’s their story, and nobody knows how to tell it better than they do,” Williams said.
Williams is passionate about the program and about telling important stories that are not being told in the mainstream media. Her own documentary work for television, nonprofits, citizen groups and political campaigns has won numerous awards, and her films have appeared on the Discovery Channel, PBS, BBC and many more outlets. She is clearly excited to share her knowledge with the girls, not only in Oakland, but across the globe.
“These girls are from really difficult, tough backgrounds. They feel trapped sometimes, they feel alone, they feel there’s no one they can talk to,” Williams said. “The camera gives them a lens to reframe their world and a vehicle to get out of that feeling of being trapped.”
Girls in the program practice their skills and build confidence by going out in the community and interviewing people for the short films, which are generally less than 10 minutes. Many of them had no prior experience, but found they had succinct storytelling skills.
“You give these girls the opportunity to not only tell their stories, they’re going to tell the stories of the community, they’re going to tell the stories that matter to them and their peer group,” said GlobalGirl Media summer academy project director Heather Faison.
Faison began her career as a copy editor, reporter and designer, and also did similar work with the Youth Advocacy Network in Cameroon, Africa, teaching girls to tell their stories through digital media.
“I work with these girls, and every day I leave inspired, I leave just completely consumed in gratitude, because I know, due to the work we’re doing with them, things will be better,” Faison said.
For more information, go to: https://globalgirlmedia.org/ and their YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCD4J0ngDDbyB7-KQ6ZdjL_Q.
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GGM WINS BLACK GIRLS FREEDOM FUND!
We’re proud to be one of 68 grantee partners of the @BlackGirlFreedomFund (BGFF), an initiative of @GrantmakersForGirlsOfColor. Selected by their Grantmaking Council of Black girls, femmes and gender-expansive youth ages 14-22, these grants will support the leadership and organizing capacity of Black girls in 23 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. Along with BGFF, the #1Billion4BlackGirls campaign aims to mobilize $1 billion by 2030 to uplift Black girls.
Join us in celebrating Black girl leadership!
Visit https://bit.ly/BGFFGrantees22 to learn more!
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RISING UP WITH SONALI: SPECIAL REPORT ON AFGHAN REFUGEES IN GREECE
FEATURING AMIE WILLIAMS, SHAFI, KARIME, and ADELE QIAS – Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras is under pressure to hold snap elections after his Syriza party lost big in recent Parliamentary elections. Although Tspiras’s term ends in October, he is hoping snap elections will salvage some political power before then. Among the issues at stake is the fate of refugees who have become political scapegoats in European nations like Greece.
Today we go to Athens for a special report on Afghan refugees in Greece.
Amie Williams, journalist and filmmaker, Shafi Qias, clothing designer, refugee from Afghanistan, Karime Qias, aspiring poet and filmmaker, refugee from Afghanistan, Adele Qias, high school student, refugee from Afghanistan
UNDER THE LEMON TREE from GlobalGirl Media on Vimeo.
Find out more about the crowdfunding efforts of the Qias sisters to secure a home for themselves: https://gogetfunding.com/a-home-in-athens-♡-♡-♡/
Sign Amnesty’s petition for women refugees in Greece: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2018/10/refugee-women-in-greece/#tendemands
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NEWSWEEK: SOPHIA RISING: THE STORY OF ONE GIRL DEFYING THE ODDS
FROM NEWSWEEK
Author: Laura Powers
A new film is changing the narrative of young woman and girls in Africa. Produced by young women, “Sophia Rising” follows the story of Sophia, a nineteen year old in Northern Kenya, as she escapes child marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM) and limited access to education to graduate high school and apply for university. The film was written, filmed and produced by Kenyan and Tanzanian girls, as part of the UNEARTH project, is a collaboration between BRAVE, Global Girl Media, and Samburu Girls Foundation, and puts young women and girls at the center both as the subject and as the storytellers.
The challenges that Sophia has faced are not uncommon. At 14, her family (predominantly her uncles) pressured her to marry a 58 year old man. With the support of her father, she was able to avoid that life and attend school instead but not all have been as lucky. According to UNICEF, in 2014, 23% of women in Kenya were married before the age of 18. Sophia’s older sisters were married by the age of ten, and there is pressure for her younger sister to follow suit.
With the pressure to marry at a young age, receiving an education can be challenging. In Northern Kenya, 19% of girls start school, let alone finish. But studies have shown that higher rates of young women with an education and an independent income reduce violence against women and improve overall economic strength. Women often bear the brunt of negative impact from climate change, political violence and economic downturns, but without access to education, it is difficult for them to enter spaces where there voice will be heard on these issues.
As the film and Sophia’s story highlights, women in these difficult situations are not without agency. Without being handed the space to speak out, women in places like Kenya are increasingly creating their own spaces to tell their stories. Non profits are supporting these efforts, like Fempo in Democratic Republic of Congo, which gives women the training and tools necessary to run for public office.
One of the co-producers of the project, BRAVE, has discovered a unique way to support young girls and provide them with skills and self-confidence to speak out: Travel. BRAVE takes young women and girls facing violence, child marriage and FGM and takes them on a trip across their country, which is often the first time these girls have left their communities. India Baird, the founder and director of BRAVE, says, “BRAVE uses the challenge of travel and adventure in wild places to create opportunities for girls, and works with those who can provide the resources, knowledge, experience, and safety that girls need to lead.” The trips create a safe space for them to speak about their experiences, while learning about things like conservation, advocacy and even filmmaking. By learning from other girls in different situations, as well as discovering the experiences of people in other parts of the country, these young women gain understanding of issues that they face, and brainstorm solutions.
