This is another exciting week.  On Thursday, FORGE is holding a fundraising event in San Francisco that will feature selections from "Far From Gone" - a documentary that we were fortunate enough to capture this past summer in Meheba Refugee Settlement, Zambia.  The footage is phenomenal, and Barney Broomfield, the cinematographer and documentarian who shot and is editing the film, is a world-class talent.  The story is one that we could never have dreamed of stumbling upon. 

The film follows the lives of two refugees - best friends - as they prepare for their lives to take very different paths.  Stephen, a Congolese refugee in his mid-20s, is one of the top staff-members FORGE has ever had.  His passion and intelligence were driving forces behind the success of our FORGE Microfinance Institute.  After a series of interviews, Stephen was granted the incredible opportunity of being resettled to Norway.  Meanwhile, Boniface, Stephen's best friend and colleague at FMI, is the same type of leader.  As a pair, they command significant respect in Meheba's large community.  Boniface, however, has not been afforded resettlement and must watch while Stephen prepares to move to leave the camp forever for resettlement in Norway.

The emotions that the film captures are rich and you can see and feel every character being internally torn between joy and grief.  We're convinced it will make for an entertaining, inspiring, and enlightening final product.  We're proud to be part of a project that doesn't directly promote FORGE, but rather focuses on the capabilities and talents of some amazing refugees.  The filmaker Mr. Broomfield keeps remarking on how so many refugee films focus on pain and sorrow, while "that's only one side of the story."

One major cause of concern at the moment, however, is whether or not the film captures the difficulty of the circumstances into which refugees are thrown.  At it's most fundamental level, FORGE exists because refugees have such few opportunities for self-advancement.  We focus on opportunities and the future, but the fact remains that the present-day circumstances for over 10 million refugees in Africa are not pretty.  While we certainly want to focus on how far Stephen and Boniface have carried themselves and their community, we don't want to make their struggles seem simple or their successes appear commonplace, nor do we want to fail to show that it is NGOs like FORGE that are helping to make such pursuit of opportunity possible.

It's a tough balance to strike...

- Kjerstin

(If you are going to be in San Francisco on Thursday and would like to attend, send me an email at kjerstin [at] forgenow.org)