ActionAid - With you, Without You.
ActionAid is a NGO organization whose priority is to fight poverty and to eliminate any act of discrimination by offering equal opportunities and rights to those who live in the developing countries. It was founded in 1977, in United Kingdom by Cecil Jackson-Cole and it started as an exclusively charitable organization, whose aim was to provide people with essential goods, such as clean water, food and first aid supplies, and an educational system for children. Later on, it expanded its actions, since it became perceivable that this kind of help was solving the problem only temporarily, so the members of ActionAid decided to take matters in their hand and to take highly effective measures as well.
Today, ActionAid’s current actions aim to establish a beneficial economic, social and environmental system for the people who live under unfavorable circumstances, by defending women’s rights, facing the HIV/AIDS and giving the right to people for education. This strong desire has been proven advantageous as the organization now operates in 45 different countries and works with more than 15 million people from all over the world, changing many things there for the better.
Among its many actions, a program that has become very known and at the same time successful is the Child Sponsorship, in which people who are interested, they don’t actually adopt a child from these areas, but from the time they decide to participate, they have to pay a small amount of money monthly, and they are kept informed about the child’s progress. The funds of this sponsorship support and develop the area the child lives in, in order to live a healthier and safer life. They are used for clean water, food, and also for creating a health system and developing the educational system by establishing education centres for children who don’t have schools in their area.
To inform more and more people about the Child Sponsorship, a 55-second spot was created by ActionAid 5 years ago, which was first shown on 1st of April 2013. This video focuses on how important it is to become a child sponsor and how many lives can be saved by paying a small cost, around 0,72 € per month. These children live under hostile conditions, without even having the essentials to live a normal life.
The spot consists of some snapshots of their daily routine, depicting how their life is without our help. It shows kids drinking polluted water, small kids working in hard circumstances which means that they put themselves in danger, searching for food and clothing in rubbish and generally kids with sad faces who suffer.
On the other hand, it shows the other point of view, how things are really changed when we offer our help. Their life changes completely and they are shown with a bright smile on their faces, singing and playing with each other, and this is thanks to the clean water they drink, the food they have on their plates and the opportunity they are offered to go to school.
They don’t feel helpless and alone anymore, because they know that there are some people out there who, even though, are far away, they actually care about them and can change many lives for the better. In a few words, we can say that the video aims to make us understand that we can provide so many things to our fellow men, by giving almost nothing!
Our team MED²ia: Dimitra Karali Mariza Rizou Evaggelia Paraskevopoulou Dimitra Christodoulaki
