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.

On assignment as a videographer on UNICEF's Generation Future project

Nick Sells contacted me to work as a videographer to document UNICEF’s Generation Future programme in Cambodia. Generation Future is a mentorship programme for young Cambodians with big ideas. The project will form part of UNICEF’s celebration of World Children’s Day.

After being selected for the programme, a group of young Cambodians receive one-on-one guidance from accomplished mentors. They also get seed funding to budget for essential project costs and tailored training from UNICEF Cambodia. When they have completed the training, they take their projects into schools to engage other Cambodian youth about their ideas for social change.

The were a broad range of projects including projects about creating school gardens to grow vegetables, oral hygiene and engineering. The video follows the participants training and them delivering the training for their project at a numbers of schools in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The aim in the future is to expand the project, so school children all over the country can benefit.

It was a pleasure getting to meet the future generation of Cambodians. If they’re anything to go by, Cambodia is in safe hands. Hopefully the success of the project will mean that it returns in 2023.

You can see more examples of my videography work here and here.

NGO videographer for UNICEF and LEGO project in Siem Reap, Cambodia

I was assigned to work as an NGO videographer to produce a training video for UNICEF and LEGO’s Build the Change project in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

UNICEF and LEGO have been corporate partners since 2015. Their latest collaboration is the Build the Change project, which will be taught in classrooms across Cambodia. The aim is for Cambodian students to use their imaginations and LEGO to work no a project that expresses their hopes for the future. Photos of the projects are then uploaded to a portal for the project and LEGO aims to share the projects to try and bring about lasting change using the students ideas.

I was asked to make a training video that helped to support the teacher’s book to clearly and concisely demonstrate to Cambodian teachers how to set up and run the activity in their classrooms and share the projects.

The video was a challenge as the project hadn’t been launched in Cambodia and no one had experience of teaching the activity. I worked closely with Bunly and the communications team at UNICEF to find solutions to make a training video that clearly explains the process of running the activity in a classroom, so that teachers across Cambodia understand how to set up and run the activity in their classrooms. The team at UNICEF were very happy with results.

You can watch the video above and you can see more examples of training videos here and more examples of my work as an NGO videographer here.