Young people speak about their situation in the Northeast of Brazil

Videos about child labour and commercial and sexual exploitation were presented in the Young Filmmakers Showcase in Brazil, during the Third Mercosur Audiovisual Festival.

Jhonatas and Cássimas are two young people that live in a sector of Cabo Santo Agostinho and are part of a group of 90 adolescents involved in a project to promote the rights of the child and adolescent in the Northeast of Brazil.

Two films: ‘Searching to survive’ and ‘Exploited lives’ were selected among 151 to represent Brazil in the Third Mercosur Audiovisual Festival.  The two videos give an approach on the problem of the garbage collectors and the sexual and commercial exploitation of boys, girls and adolescents in the Brazilian Northeast.

Child labour is one of the worst ways of abuse and violation of the rights of the child around the world. According to the International Labour Organization, in Latin America about 17 million of boys and girls work, putting in risk their lives, health and education.

Both documental are part of the project: ‘Communicating the rights of the child and adolescents’ coordinated by Plan and directed by the Brazilian filmmaker Cynthia Falcao.  This project gathers young people between 12 to 17 years to promote the rights of the children and the adolescents.

'This project helped to express my ideas, to promote teamwork and to respect other people’s opinion’, confirms Jhonatas V. (16), who integrates the group of young filmmakers.

Plan’s initiative, a non governmental organization leader in children issues, involves more than 90 boys, girls and adolescents in Potenzinha and Ponte dos Carvalhos in Pernambuco State.  This project started back in 2004 and nowadays integrates expressions in different narrative and informative genres as well as audiovisual formats.

‘The radio is a mean of communication respected by a lot of people. Maybe we do not have the power to change people’s minds, but we can make them think about it’, agrees Cássima L. (16) when responding about the project scope.

Videos available in Portuguese version in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Uqws5UyaRc 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avQiV0u4z_s

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