AID FILM PREMIERS IN BOLGA (Graphic SHOWBIZ, Thursday September 4, 2008 PAGE 9)

By Benjamin Xornam Glover

A 40-minute documentary film about foreign aid in Africa and its impact on the people, titled How To Make a Difference in Africa has been unveiled at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region.
The documentary highlights the positive gains made by Afrikids Ghana, a grassroot child rights organisation which works alongside indigenous communities to improve the quality of life for rejected and vulnerable children. It also examines how the ‘bottom up’ approach can transform the impact of aid and make it truly sustainable.
The film was produced by Sorious Samura, an award-winning Sierra Leonean journalist best known for documentaries foe CNN such as Cry Freetown (2000) and Exodus from Africa (2001).
Samura’s approach has sometimes been controversial and his methods extreme, but his reputation for the unflinching pursuit of truth regardless of its inconvenience has earned him respect across Africa and throughout the world.
How effective are foreign-based charities in Africa? Is there an alternative to the top-down approach which has dominated the aid industry for decades? These were the questions Samura and and his company, Storyhouse Films, spent a month searching answers for by looking at the operations of an organization called AfriKids in Ghana .
AfriKids is a child rights organisation, which works alongside indigenous communities in Ghana to improve quality of life for rejected and vulnerable children.
The national premiere of the film was held in Bolgatanga, the national headquarters of the NGO, came after the international one on June 19 in London. It was estimated that over 300 people descended on Westbourne Studios for the London screening.
The National Director of Afrikids Ghana, Mr. Nicholas K. Kumah told the audience at the of the premiere, mostly journalists, that after watching a documentary on Kenya which exposed corruption in that country, his organisation challenged the producers of that film to come to Ghana to see the positive work being done here.
“We thought that as an organisation working in Africa and relying mostly on donors abroad, any documentary that seeks to tell outsiders that Africans are corrupt has a very serious repercussion on our work”
He said for that matter, Afrikids challenged the producers of the documentary to look at the positive sides of Africa by offering their NGO up for to scrutiny.
According to Mr. Kumah, Insight TV came to Ghana to review the activities of Afrikids at the end of which they were surprised at what positive things are being done by the NGO which is committed to ensuring that all children in northern Ghana are afforded their basic rights.
According to Sorious Samura, Afrikids is one of the few charities which manage to positively demonstrate how foreign aid works for Africa.
The documentary is expected to be broadcast soon on one of the nation’s television networks.