‘We film, therefore we are’
Holding her toddler in her arms, the young woman spoke at first timidly into the camera: “My name is Rehana, and I am 14. I never had access to school. Now I have children, but they have no school either.”
Her voice grew in confidence and strength as she imagined herself speaking to a wider audience. “I want my son to learn English, Burmese and Bangla, because I’m certain that if he is educated, he won’t have to work in any odd job. He’ll be self-dependent!”
We are in Leda, a makeshift settlement in Cox’s Bazar, one of Bangladesh’s most remote and impoverished districts – more than four hours travel by air and land from Dhaka – where an extremely vulnerable community of 15,000 live isolated and uncertain lives. To give communities a much-needed voice in problem solving, the International Organization for Migration has started a Participatory Video initiative in the makeshift settlements.
KJ