Professional Documents
Culture Documents
America, with over 150,000 people mostly from Colombia requesting asylum in the country over the past decade. The majority of refugees remain unregistered and, even for those granted refugee status, finding employment and accessing basic services is a struggle. Negative perceptions of the displaced have caused significant tension between local and refugee populations. RET helps protect refugees in Ecuador by providing them with access to education, psychosocial assistance and vocational training, while encouraging and fostering integration between local and refugee populations. We spent a fantastic afternoon with a group of Ecuadorian and Colombian teenagers engrossed in an exciting new film production project. Having learned the basics of directing, filming, producing and editing, the group were busy working on a short film about child labour. Through the course, close friendships have been forged, bridging the divide between refugee and local. Many of the children we spoke to had achieved more than simply making new friends though; they had new dreams of building on this training and pursuing a career in this field. This type of education is interesting, its fun and its something were passionate about, one of the group tells us. Using film to address social issues can be very powerful. Now I know this is what I want to do with my life. With less than two months left of our expedition, were anxious to get back on the road and start making some progress. Heres hoping Tommys been fixed in time for our next instalment