Please join us for our special screening followed by Q&A with
HOLLY CARTER
Founder and Executive Director, BYkids
NAFISSATOU J. DIOP
Senior Advisor & Coordinator
UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Program on the Elimination of FGM
ELIZABETH HUMMER
Filmmaker and BYkids Mentor
MOLLY MELCHING
Founder and Creative Director, Tostan
Moderated by
NAIMA DIDO
Human Rights Activist
6:00 p.m. | Registration
6:30 p.m. | Film Screening followed by Q+A
7:30 p.m. | Reception
Screening begins promptly at 6:30 p.m.
Dolby 88 Screening Room
1350 Avenue of the Americas (at West 55th Street)
Lobby Level
New York, NY 10019
ADMISSION
UNA Members: $10
UNA Student Members: $10
Guests and Non-Members: $15
In her film, 13-year-old Ndèye Fatou Fall tells how her life has been affected by profound changes that occurred in her village a few years before she was born. In 1998, Keur Simbara, Senegal was among the first communities to publicly abandon the traditions of Female Genital Cutting (FGC) and child marriage, traditions which had been practiced for centuries.
More than 700 million women living today were married as children and FGC has impacted an estimated 200 million girls and women in 30 countries worldwide.
Mentored by Emmy-winning filmmaker, Elizabeth Hummer, Ndèye Fatou takes us on the journey of a cultural shift which fundamentally changed the course of her life and those of her peers. We learn how the women of Keur Simbara and the surrounding villages were inspired by the teachings of Tostan, a human rights non-profit based in Senegal, and how they, with the help of their Imam, were able to change deeply entrenched social norms.
She records the story of a woman who lost two daughters from complications of FGC and learns from another what it was like to be forced to marry a friend of her stepfather at the age of 12. Through these interviews we see how the hardships these women endured helped create an inner strength that inspired them to become advocates for the empowerment of women.
The wave of change in villages like Keur Simbara has ushered West Africa into a new era. Ndèye Fatou’s film richly illuminates that she is part of a new generation of African women who are, for the first time, able to complete their education, marry whom they want and make their own decisions.
As mentor, Hummer is committed to helping children tell their stories and be understood. Her work in children’s media has earned two Emmy awards and four nominations.
“Young people are in a rapidly evolving state of making sense of their worlds and their place within it,” Hummer stated. “By helping youth to tell their stories authentically, BYkids assists them to become more grounded in their personal truth and confident about their place in the world — locally and globally. I am proud to be a shepherd to the individual wisdom of young people on behalf of BYkids. Nothing is more effective in bringing peace to the world than this exchange of self-knowledge.”
Join us for this premiere sneak peek of WALK ON MY OWN, which will be included in an upcoming season of BYkids films to be presented on PBS. Our guests this evening to discuss the film after the screening will be Holly Carter, founder and executive director of BYkids, filmmaker and BYkids mentor Elizabeth Hummer, and special guest Molly Melching, the founder and creative director of Tostan, which empowers African communities to bring about positive social transformation through respecting human rights.
Panel Speakers
HOLLY CARTER
Holly Carter is the Founder and Executive Director of BYkids. Holly began her career as a writer and editor at The New York Times and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Since then she has lived in Korea as a Henry Luce scholar and print and television journalist; produced an award-winning documentary on Margaret Sanger; co-founded North Carolina's Full Frame Festival; served as a consultant for The After-School Corporation; produced the PBS series Media Matters; and most recently was the Executive Director of The Global Film Initiative.
NAFISSATOU J. DIOP
Since 2009, Nafissatou Diop is the Senior Gender & Social Norms Adviser at UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund), as well as the Coordinator of the organizations Female Genital Mutilation program.
Ms. Diop brings 20 years of experience in international health and development, directing and managing initiatives to improve Gender Equality, Human Rights, quality reproductive health and HIV/AIDS services in Africa. She has a solid track record of providing vision, leadership, and technical support for improved gender equality and human rights, and sexual and reproductive health to 17 countries in Africa and the Middle East.
She has led the design, implementation, coordination and management of programs to end female genital mutilation (FGM), family planning, reproductive health, maternal and neonatal health, STIs and HIV/AIDS, postabortion care (PAC), and adolescent health. Her extensive experience in addressing social norms includes applying best practices, utilizing research results, and scaling up lessons learned. She is also adviser to several boards and gender and rights advisory panels.
Ms. Diop’s far-reaching and in-depth experience in Africa provides cultural sensitivity and skills for engaging with varied and nontraditional partners region-wide, including religious and grassroot groups and women’s networks.
ELIZABETH HUMMER
Elizabeth Hummer has been committed to empowering young people to create the best lives for themselves since the early 90’s. She has worked for Sesame Workshop, Nickelodeon, PBS (Cyberchase, In the Mix), and MTV, giving kids cameras to help them tell their stories. She also helps them find jobs in production. Her work in children’s media has received two Emmy Awards and four nominations. She aspires to bring video into the classroom as a form of academic expression.
Elizabeth is proud to also have been on the producing team of POET AGAINST PREJUDICE, a previous BYkids film.
MOLLY MELCHING
Molly Melching is the Founder and Creative Director of the Non Governmental Organization, Tostan. Having lived and worked in Senegal since 1974, Molly has received international recognition for her groundbreaking educational programs in national languages. Molly’s early experiences in rural Senegal reinforced her beliefs that many development efforts were not addressing the deeper priorities of African communities. In collaboration with Senegalese villagers, she developed a new type of education program that actively involves both adults and youth in promoting positive African values and using traditional ways of learning. Their efforts grew throughout the 1980s, leading Molly to found Tostan in 1991.
Tostan’s innovative grassroots, human rights-based education model has led communities to make significant progress in the areas of health, education, governance, the environment and financial empowerment. To date, more than 8,500 communities in 8 African countries have held public declarations to abandon the practices of female genital cutting and child marriage.
Molly and Tostan have received numerous awards including the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, UNESCO’s King Sejong Literacy Prize, the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship and the Thomas J. Dodd Award for Justice and Human Rights.
Molly was also the subject of the New York Times best-selling book However Long the Night, written by acclaimed author Aimee Molloy.
NAIMA DIDO
Naima Dido was born in Nairobi, Kenya, shortly after her parents fled there from Ethiopia as political refugees. In 1989, she was resettled in the US along with her parents and four younger siblings. Naima describes herself as an activist for human rights and women’s empowerment. Her work, volunteerism, and life experience inform her passion for self-sufficiency and human dignity. She believes that poverty is usually, at its root, about imbalances of power and the lack of access to resources, that change is possible, and that solutions require good ideas, courage, and persistence. She has more than 20 years’ experience working with underprivileged refugee communities in the US and Africa, and holds a BS in International Business.
ABOUT BYkids
Because kids tell honest and important stories, but often go unheard, the non-profit organization BYkids was created to pair master filmmakers, such Albert Maysles and Ric Burns, with youth (ages 8-21) from around the world, to create short documentaries that educate Americans about globally relevant issues.
By giving kids the tools and mentoring to make documentary films about their lives and packaging those films for a wide American audience, BYkids gives voice to youth from diverse cultures, and encourages international understanding and engagement by giving viewers concrete ways to respond.
In October 2011, Edmond Mulet, Assistant Secretary-General for U.N. Peacekeeping Operations, became a core advisor for developing BYkids partnerships with United Nations agencies, extending the story sourcing, on-site logistics and strategic outreach for BYkids films. "Each BYkids youth storyteller mobilizes our conscience towards a larger sense of global solidarity. BYkids reminds us that we are one Humanity," said Mulet.
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