IRC Girl Empower
Overview: In Liberia, IRC has been implementing the Girl Empower program with adolescent girls. The program included a life skills curriculum, which was delivered in 56 adolescent girl only “safe spaces” chosen by community leaders. The curriculum taught life skills including reproductive health and body hygiene, as well as healthy relationships and support networks. The girls also learned skills that would enable them to discuss difficult choices (such as negotiating with their parents about staying in school rather than working on the farm, for example) and safety planning (mapping out risky areas in the community; becoming knowledgeable of GBV types and the referral systems) so as to stay safe as they set their goals for their life journey. The weekly discussion sessions were facilitated by IRC trained mentors who followed the curriculum and were supportively supervised by IRC program staff.
Goal: The objective of the video was to summarise IRC’s work with adolescent girls and the findings of their research. The film would be made used to raise awareness about the needs of adolescent girls in humanitarian crises; and to empower the adolescent girls and give them a voice.
Video footage from Liberia and Ethiopia was combined to create a film that would be shown at an event for International Day of the Girl. The film would showcase IRC’s work with adolescent girls, and the findings from recent research.
Challenges: Upon arriving on location, we had a very limited amount to arrange and collect the interview and b-roll footage. IRC had found a selection of girls who were willing to participate in the film and then we interviewed. We ended up going back and forth between two communities to fit everything in. Since the program had ended, we needed to bring all the girls together for a mock girl empower session. We got up each morning before dawn to fit in extra b-roll for the editor to work with when putting the final film together.
Client: IRC
Subject: Patience and
Location: Ganta, Liberia