The FilmAid Story
In 1999, when Kosovo was just coming into our daily consciousness with reports of impending NATO strikes, a group of concerned film professionals formed FilmAid International.
FilmAid mobilized quickly and was entertaining children and their families in the Macedonian refugee camps within weeks. FilmAid was supported and encouraged by several international relief organizations including Doctors of the World, UNICEF, International Rescue Committee (IRC) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
"Diversion is a luxury we afford ourselves without sacrifice. Why would we deprive it from refugees? Sometimes, humanitarian assistance can have a narrow emphasis on only material and physical needs. Timely and appropriate interventions like FilmAid not only have immediate relevance but may help avert a generation of emotional incapacitation..."
--Gerald Martone, Director of Emergency Response, International Rescue Committee
FilmAid's firsthand experience in Macedonia and Kosovo proved the power of the big screen: films restore hope, educate and inspire.
Following the success in the Balkans, the IRC and the UNHCR asked FilmAid International to go to Africa. Ongoing violent conflict and persecution of individuals in central and eastern Africa had forced millions of civilians to flee their homes. In the fall of 2001, FilmAid arrived in East Africa to help meet the psychosocial needs of thousands of refugees from Sudan, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Rwanda, some of whom had been in the camps for as long as 10 years. The project in East Africa continues.
