Partners for Resilience aims to strengthen the voice of civil society organizations, in an attempt to achieve policy change and implementation designed to address the needs of vulnerable communities. Could Makmende take these voices a step further, going beyond highlight their resilience to shine a light on how community resilience (with the support from PfR) can facilitate a stronger voice bringing real tangible consequences to the heart of communities?
Our focus within these films was to show how communities (and the individuals which comprise them) have the strength and inner power (with the support of PfR), to come together and transition from a voice that is silenced to a shared voice that is heard. Not only are these civil society organizations ‘heard’, but they are also listened to. But creating a voice strong enough to be heard isn’t easy. Indeed, these civil society organisations have not been effectively heard to date. So why now, what’s the change? These films show the transition of 4 civil society organizations in 4 countries as they go from having a silenced voice to one, whereby ‘ When You Hear Us’. It showcases how community resilience (with the support from PfR) can facilitate a stronger voice bringing real tangible consequences to the heart of communities. When you hear us’ builds on the resilience portrayed in the previously commissioned ‘We bend don’t break’ campaign and explores how such resilience and a strengthened voice, becomes a political tool for negotiations with decision makers.
We trained civil society leaders to use communication to tell their own stories, leading up to a moment where they were able to approach local politicians to call for change. We created 4 Transition videos: 3-4 minute videos for each country, 30-60 seconds social media edits for each country and photography in each locality
