Consul General of the Republic of Ghana John Boahen, and his wife Mary
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01/27/2006 - Ottawa, Canada: SOS Children’s Villages Canada marked the upcoming broadcast of the film “Making Children Matter” today with a Launch held at St. Lawrence Hall.
The event was hosted jointly by the organization and Otto Ditz, Austrian Ambassador to Canada and Honorary Patron of SOS Children’s Villages Canada. Special guests included John Boahen, Consul General for the Republic of Ghana, Dawn and Steve Deme the filmmakers, and Laura Thompson the film’s narrator.
Laura and her friend SOS Children’s Villages scholarship student Samuel Fuakye are two of the young people profiled in a new television documentary series which follows the first-time experiences of young Canadians who want to learn more about how they can effect change in the developing world.
Laura and Samuel with a teacher from Samuel’s SOS School, Tema Village
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World Class: Young people who can change the world debuts on Canadian Learning Television (CLT) 10:00 pm ET Thursday, March 9, 2006 and continues for six weeks through to April 13, 2006.
In its pilot phase with these six episodes, the producers aim to make World Class into a 26-part series over the next few years in order to more fully tell the story of young Canadians becoming involved in communities throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America.
With stunning visuals and dramatic story-telling techniques, the series celebrates Canada's young global citizens. World Class in its pilot presentation visits 6 countries: Paraguay, Ghana, Uganda, Ethiopia, Thailand and Sri Lanka.
"Making Children Matter", the story of Samuel and Laura's visit to his SOS Village in Tema, Ghana, is one of the original pilot episodes for World Class: Young people who can change the world which debuts on Canadian Learning Television (CLT) 10:00 pm ET Thursday, March 9, 2006 and continues for six weeks through to April 13, 2006.
Laura and Samuel at his SOS home in Tema Village
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Samuel and Laura met while they were both students at York University in Toronto. Laura, a native of Orillia, Ontario has recently graduated and is keenly interested in learning more about the developing world. "I want to make a difference," she explains. "When Samuel and SOS Children’s Villages offered me the chance to visit his SOS home in Ghana, I knew it was the chance of a lifetime," she continues.
The two friends travelled to Ghana with series director Steve Deme in August, 2005. Laura and Samuel stayed with his SOS family in Tema Village which gave Laura an on-the-spot opportunity to learn much about the important work being carried out by the organization in Ghana.
The two were warmly welcomed by the SOS Tema Village community and its Director, Michael Tsagli. "Mr. Tsagli and all the staff at Tema Village were wonderful," said Laura. "I made so many friends and I'm even more committed to helping to raise Canadian's awareness of how much we can help to make positive change in Africa," she added.
Dawn Deme, the film’s producer, singled out both Laura and Sam as exceptional young people. "The World Class series features kids from all over the province, from every kind of economic and cultural background, ordinary kids, not super heroes, who simply want to change the planet for the better," she said. "Here are a bunch of normal young people, doing extraordinary things, going out and helping, learning, and facing really tough situations far away from home. These are dramatic difficult situations and our series captures many of the important moments," she continued.