In 2022, Grace Sikelo from Chilobwe Township in Blantyre found herself out of school after she got pregnant.
Sikelo, who was 18 years old, says the day she learnt the news was the worst of her life.
“It shattered my life as I saw my dream of becoming a graphic designer fade into thin air,” she recalls.
After delivering her child, Sikelo did not go back to school because of numerous limitations that her new status as a mother had brought her.
She said: “Life has been difficult. I barely receive child support from the man who once promised the world to me. Neither do I have fees to go back to school.”
Today, Sikelo has an opportunity to escape the doom that has characterised her life ever since.
She was among the youth from the township who recently took part in a filmmaking training under the research project titled Participatory Planning and Filmmaking for Urban Climate Resilience.
The training is part of an academic research project whose findings will be published in form of a journal article, with support from the American Red Cross’ Global Disaster Preparedness Centre Research Grants.
The project is being implemented by University of East Anglia postgraduate researcher John Aubrey Chirwa.
The two-week training involved 12 youths, between the ages of 18 and 32, from Chilobwe Township. After the training, the participants produced a documentary focusing on advocacy and community engagement.
Sikelo directed the photography project and she said she hopes the training will help reopen doors to her dreams of eking out a professional career.
She said: “The training has helped me gain skills in how to operate a camera. I can take any shot without problems.
“I hope this will be a launchpad for me to realise my dream of becoming a graphic designer.”
Chirwa, who was the principal investigator in the project, said the study aims to explore how film can be utilised as a tool for participatory planning to enhance the resilience of cities to disasters.
He said the choice of Chilobwe Township, which sits at the foot of Soche Hill in Blantyre, was strategic as it is one of the areas that suffered the most devastation during Cyclone Freddy in March 2023.
He said: “We wanted them to know the basics about the camera, types of shots, camera angles, camera setups, types of microphones, scene lighting, script writing, film footage, interviewing techniques, and editing.
“These youths are from disadvantaged backgrounds for instance some are school dropouts due to lack of fees or early pregnancies. Others are doing small-scale businesses, but are still struggling while others are idle with literally nothing to do.”
Chirwa said the main goal is to make sure that local people tell their own stories about their experiences around disasters.
“Film is considered as a powerful tool for social change in the practice of development,” he said.
The project’s trainer Alfred Kaambankadzanja, a master of arts student at the University of Malawi, said film can be an effective medium to communicate development as it gives community members the resources to share their own stories and introduces a radical change.
He said: “It enables the voices of local communities to speak unmediated and provides a more real, grounded idea of what it is like to be them. By putting communities in charge of telling their stories, the process becomes an opportunity to educate people, build confidence, start conversations and achieve sustainable change.”
