Twenty-four-year-old Sydney Anglican Matt Nelson is preparing to tell African leaders of the plight of children living on their streets.
Through Ubuntu " the Street Child Story, a documentary he wrote, filmed and directed over three months in the slums of southern Africa last year, Matt follows the stories of street children in the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The film has been nominated for best documentary in October’s International Film Festival of South Africa and will also appear in the Egyptian festival in April next year.
The documentary was made with the aid of Eagles Wings, a Christian organisation with a threefold strategy for helping street children, which includes providing full-time care, educating families to care for children and find employment, and providing free schooling for the children.
Ubuntu will be launched on Saturday in Lusaka at an invitation-only viewing which will be attended by the Minister for Social Welfare, Catherine Namagala, who will also speak at the event.
"We've also invited pastors and heads of non-government organisations," says Matt, adding that the film has the support of Unicef and World Vision.
While he is in Africa, Matt hopes to check the progress one year on of the children in the documentary, which details the enormity of the crisis for children living on southern African streets.
‘When reality first bit me’
Matt was first confronted by the plight of street kids when he spent three weeks in Kenya as part of a St Paul's, Castle Hill mission trip in 2004.
"I couldn't shake the image of these kids living on the streets out of my head. No child deserves to live on the streets," he said.
The experience prompted him to film the documentary, along with Reid Anderton and Clayton Hinds, both from Baptist churches in Brisbane.
"We interviewed everyone from government ministers down to the kids so that way we got the whole picture, and I think that was a good idea as a filmmaker because then everyone can take something out of it," he explains.
While each case of homelessness is different, the documentary reveals that many of these children have been orphaned, and passed to their extended families, who are unable or unwilling to care for them. Ten million children Africa-wide are currently living on the streets.
Matt explains that the film is not meant to be prescriptive, but is designed to get Christians in Australia and Africa thinking.
"I didn't want to tell people what to do because the point of the film was to start the discussion," he says. "I think the film has the chance to open up people's minds and say, "this is real'."
Matt says he has already seen this happen, with friends who have seen the film inspired to take action, one Sydney friend with plans to start a database for NGOs and churches, and another African friend spurred on as he works for Eagles Wings to make the organisation “one of the best lights” for children in need.
"Stories like that warm your heart and you go, "wow thanks God'," he smiles.
"Throughout the project I was praying "God if one person is moved enough by the film to help these children, then the film's served its purpose’ and it seems that more than one person has been moved from the stories I've heard and it's been incredibly humbling to be a part of that."
Another outcome of the film has been the funding of a full-time social worker through Eagles Wings to work with the social justice arm of the church to help churches look after street children, says Matt.
The Sydney effect
Over 1000 people saw the film in March when it was launched in Brisbane, and then Sydney, selling out an entire cinema at Castle Hill's Greater Union complex.
After screening the film, Sutherland Shire Christian School encouraged students to go without something " a canteen lunch for example " giving the money they would have spent to Eagles Wings.
"I spoke to one kid who realised for the first time that he is very blessed and that he is in the top one per cent of the world," Matt says.
Matt says he hopes the film will show Christians in Australia that they can make a difference. "Yes it's a big problem but the reality is that you can do something.”
Ubuntu will also be screened at the ReachOut conference on Saturday night, August 16.
