In The Works: New GEP Documentary!

The Ghana Education Project and Conscious Movements Collective, two youth-run, youth-focused organizations working around international community issues, propose to collaborate on the production of a feature length documentary about the debilitating impact of HIV/AIDS on the world's
youth. The film will focus on the marginalization of youth through the lens of sexual health. The decision to focus on youth stems from the belief that the high incidence of new HIV infections among youth (50% of all new infections are amongst young people aged 13-24) is a gauge of the large-scale failure of many of the political, economical and cultural systems that govern our lives.

The film will examine a cross-section of high-risk youth, including women, LGBT and citizens of "developing nations". Through this examination, we aim to reveal the ways in which the macroscopic effects of socio-economic system failures filter down to affect the individuals whose lives depend on their success. In the context of sexual health and HIV/AIDS, the film will reveal failing social coping mechanisms which are increasingly prevalent among youth throughout the world due to varying degrees of marginalization and miseducation. In this way, the film will clarify the nature of these dysfunctions and, most importantly, suggest realistic, youth-relevant solutions to them, thereby empowering young people to reclaim their right to life. Integral to this aspect of the project is the intent for the film, upon completion, to be used in conjunction with other sexual health adolescent programs to further grass roots efforts to expose and combat these problems.

The film will chronicle the lives of four high-risk youth from the US, the African nations of Ghana and Ethiopia and the Caribbean nation of Jamaica. Of these four participants, half will be female, at least one will be a member of the LGBT community, specifically an active MSM, and at least one African participant will have spent a significant portion of his or her life living on the street. All will be under the age of 21.

Through a narrative exploration of each participant's life and
experiences, specifically within the context of sexual health, the audience will become intimately involved with the difficulties associated with each youth's existence. Our focus is on the commonalities of adolescent sexual health issues and marginalization our participants face as young, economically disadvantaged people of color, as well as the differences that arise due to cultural and geo-political issues. Ultimately, the film aims to reveal the universality of the youth HIV/AIDS pandemic and exemplify the powerhouse of potential healing and change that youth hold within their grasp.

This documentary's footage will be gathered from four key sources:

1. Narrative footage, captured by both the production team and the participants themselves chronicling the participants' lives, environments and experiences.
2. Animated and staged visual presentations of data and concepts derived from extensive interviews with individuals and organizations in all four countries working around the HIV/AIDS pandemic, as well as interviews with individuals whose expertise in areas pertaining to less obvious aspects of the pandemic, whether economic, technological or emotional, allows them to make educated projections as to the ways in which we can realistically expect our societies and cultures to change over the next few decades (within the lifespan of the youth we are interviewing) if death tolls and infection rates continue to climb.
3. Music video-style visuals incorporating the work of musical artists from all four countries and dedicated to "edu-taining" the audience about important issues in HIV/AIDS awareness and adolescent health.
4. Interviews with the general public in all four countries on their knowledge of the virus and also of the myths and misinformation that our research has led us to believe are facilitating the pandemic. The target audience for the film is the public at large. The story, however, belongs to the youth. For this reason, great pains will be taken on the part of the production team to ensure that the final product is compelling to both youthful and "grown-up" sensibilities. An edgy, urban style, incorporating visually stimulating montages, animated graphics, elements of slam poetry, hip-hop and popular African and Caribbean music will be combined with a character-driven narrative focus to maximize the potential connectivity that young people will feel with the film. Within this framework our documentary will deftly integrate the statistics, professional insight and educated speculation into the pandemic necessary to capture the adult imagination. The film will conclude by suggesting a variety of measures everyone, particularly youth, can take to start making a change in their community immediately, thus making the first step an open ownership of this global pandemic which is so uniquely theirs and moving that much closer to slowing the path of AIDS and making room for a better tomorrow for everyone.

The target audience for the film is the public at large. The story, however, belongs to the youth. For this reason, great pains will be taken on the part of the production team to ensure that the final product is compelling to both youthful and "grown-up" sensibilities. An edgy, urban style, incorporating visually stimulating montages, animated graphics, elements of slam poetry, hip-hop and popular African and Caribbean music will be combined with a character-driven narrative focus to maximize the potential connectivity that young people will feel with the film. Within this framework our documentary will deftly integrate the statistics, professional insight and educated speculation into the pandemic necessary to capture the adult imagination. The film will conclude by suggesting a variety of measures everyone, particularly youth, can take to start making a change in their community immediately, thus making the first step an open ownership of this global pandemic which is so uniquely theirs and moving that much closer to slowing the path of AIDS and making room for a better tomorrow for everyone.

Making Heard The Buried Cry: Yusef Komunyakaa and Friends to visit Ghana Project Launch!

Professor Yusef Komunyakaa, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry 1994, joined the Board of Directors of the Ghana Education Project in 2000. Since that time, we have engaged in an ongoing dialogue about the potential for Professor Komunyaaka to motivate a number of colleagues to make an artistic exploration of Ghana, with a specific focus being the AIDS crisis in Africa. The project is designed to be a collaborative effort between the GEP and the esteemed literary periodicals, Calaloo and Rattapallax Magazines. Preparations are officially underway for a Spring '04 trip!

The mission is designed to be as inclusive as possible, attempting to connect people whose minds and talents are open to generating creative and social responses to AIDS in Africa. Professor Komunyakaa will seek to motivate those whose artistic credibility may be immediately appreciated by the American public. His and other noteworthy figures' participation will generate public interest in the mission and its products. However, young artists, photographers, and thinkers will also be invited to participate, thus fostering an open, multi-generational, multi-ethnic effort. All told, the project will motivate American awareness of the AIDS crisis in Africa, provide publicity for a special issue of Calaloo, and provide a public introduction of the GEP to the American public.

New Partnership with West Africa AIDS Foundation

During the summer of '03, Princeton volunteers Emily Buckley and Chris McKallagat visited the WAAF, and what they found astounded them. WAAF is the only full-service AIDS hospice in Ghana, providing in and out patient care, testing, community activism, and end-stage care for people who are, literally, dying. The clinic was founded and is run by Mr. Eddie and Dr. Naa-Ashelle Donton, a husband and wife team that has put their entire family behind the clinic.

As a result of our new friendship with WAAF, we will be sending volunteers to the clinic beginning in the summer of '04. We will also be working together on fundraising and awareness building initiatives on a national scale in Ghana. Please visit their website at www.waafweb.org.