Changing Global Perceptions

By Richard Lakin

A few years ago, I worked on my first CSR media project in the Dogheretti slums near Nairobi, Kenya. I'm the managing partner of a multimedia firm that caters to executives of global companies. A few of our clients are on the boards of various NGOs, and one of them asked me to produce a documentary for a non-profit of which he's the Chairman of the Board.

The program that I was focusing on was The Emmanuel Boyz Center, a drug rehabilitation center for street boys, mostly orphaned by AIDS. It's run by a young man named Daniel Nduati, who was a street addict himself, went through rehabilitation, and started this program. Many of the boys also have AIDS, either passed on at birth, or from being sex workers.

There's a beef processing plant in the Dogheretti, and lot of men come from different areas of East Africa to work there, leaving their families behind. There are a lot of vices in the area that cater to these workers; bars, drugs, prostitution, and gambling. I was shooting footage of some of the street boys that live on the peripheral of this illicit economy. Most of them sniff glue from a bottle that they affix to their lip so that the glue is under their nose all day. Some of the local police procure these boys for pedophiles, and threaten the boys if they don't go along.

Many of the boys who live there have parents who are still alive, but are too sick to provide for them, so they have to leave home and fend for themselves. There's a garbage dump behind the slaughter house where they rummage for food. They have to compete with the huge storks that also live off the scraps. A lot of these boys are grade-school age, so the storks are bigger than they are. The men who work at the plant wear white coats that are splattered with blood, and the air is thick with the smoke of cooking fires from the food stands that provide meals for the workers.

There was an overturned dump truck blocking the road when we arrived, and the men involved were engaged in a fist fight that looked to get worse before it got better. Add the sound of cattle being killed with a sledgehammer, and it was pretty much my vision of hell.

I returned to my hotel after the shoot with the wind knocked out of me. I had been on assignments in the developing world before, but the way these kids lived really hit me hard. It occurred to me that this was happening on our watch, and that history will judge us for letting this stand. I pulled some stills from the video that I had shot and e.mailed them to people that I know. I was amazed by the depth of response that I got back. Most of them said something like "What can I do to get involved?"

It was then I decided...hey, I wouldn't have the slightest idea about how to bring a good water source to this area, or supply AIDS medicine for these kids' parents, but what I do know how to do is show people what's going on here and be an advocate for action and change. I co-founded 18 rabbits digital media in order to put a face on these problems and to give a voice to youth through a student media program. We want young people all over the world to have the ability to express what's going on in their society and to change global perceptions. There's a video segment about the Emmanuel Boyz Center on our website.

About Richard Richard Lakin is a co-founder of 18 rabbits digital media, a social entrepreneurial project that gives the world’s youth a voice, and is an advocate for student-produced new media. Richard has produced CSR media for multinational companies and NGOs all over the world.