African Soul, American Heart

Challenges Entered:

The complete documentary, African Soul, American Heart. Joseph Akol Makeer--he will be available for speaking engagements and screenings. YouTube shorts--comments enable, video replies welcome. Project blog--comments enabled.Project photos.A fundraising challenge: we are asking schools, churches, families, etc. to try and raise $2,500 in support of the project to be listed on the project website and subsequent printings of the documentary as major contributors.

What else have you done in this area of work?

We raised $30,000 in the fall of 2007, largely from local support and friends and family network. That money allowed four team members to travel to Sudan for filming and information gathering. We were also able to provide small-scale aid (food, school supplies, clothes).

The team is new to this kind of work, but we are working with other similar aid groups (The John Dau Foundation; The Colorado Friends of the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan).

Project Details

Project url:

http://africansoulamericanheart.org

Project video:

Project RSS:

http://africansoulamericanheart.org/blog.php

Project Assessment

Financial support:

Project has financial support

Project goals:

The African Soul, American Heart humanitarian project, supporting Sudanese Lost Boy and war orphan Joseph Akol Makeer, will build a orphanage / orphan center in Duk Payuel, southern Sudan, to provide food, shelter, school supplies, and other basic life needs for the 2,000+ orphans of that village. A really successful fundraising campaign will allow us to build other orphanages / orphan centers for the 16,000+ orphans in Duk County, southern Sudan. The project team has 30 hours of video footage; we are working towards a 30-50 minute documentary about Joseph's life and his goal of building an orphanage in his home village. The documentary will be complete by fall 2008; a fundraising goal of $100,000 has been set for fall 2009, the orphanage / orphan center will be operational by fall 2010, although some aid can be delivered as funds are raised.

Identified Obstacles:

We can envision two mashups--old school and new school. Old school: we would like to mash-up some of the data in a compelling way as an opening (or early) montage for our documentary. Possible elements include basic facts of modern history of Sudan, Google Earth movie showing Joseph's walk from Sudan to Ethiopia to Kenya--then resettlement in Fargo. We especially need help with the Google Earth Video component. This montage could also be a stand-alone video on YouTube and other video sharing sites. New school: We would like to use some of the same material, but set up an interactive tour of (or perhaps educational quiz about) the history, geography, and contemporary situation of the region of Sudan we are working to bring aid to. Lots of help needed here.