As the world’s youngest filmmaker to show her work at a commercial movie chain at the age of 12, Zuriel Oduwole has taken her education campaign quest to a different and exciting level.
Currently in Namibia on various education initiatives, including an event where she presented her annual Dream Up, Speak Up, Stand Up (DUSUSU) Award to the First Lady Monica Geingos at the State House on Tuesday, 23 February, she conducted her first film making workshop at the Hilton Hotel in Windhoek.
Targeting youths who are out of formal school but in need of a new set of skills to ensure they are productive in the future, 25 participants were selected from more than 255 who applied to be part of the program. Applicants were selected from those who contacted her on Facebook and those who responded to an invitation to apply in the newspapers.
Zuriel, who is now 13 years old, believes education is more than science, physics, economics and geography in the classroom, but simply a vehicle to equip one for their future survival in a society.
Participants had a great opportunity to meet Zuriel, learn a lot about her journey and had many questions for her.
The second segment of the event was the filmmaking workshop, where they saw the full version of her second film made at age 10 on the formation of the African Union.
The highlight of the event was the showing of a sneak preview of her new film still in production, which she shot across five countries, namely Brazil, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Mauritius and the US.
The event also involved basic film editing skills, for which volunteers assisted Zuriel in editing recent footage she had just made.
“You are not just an inspiration, you are a leader, and I would call you ‘Your Excellency’”, said Gloria Shaningwa from Windhoek, who follows Zuriel on Facebook and Twitter and has seen all her updates.
Another participant – Beauty Tsuses who wants to be a model – simply exclaimed “wow”, after seeing all Zuriel’s works on screen. The youngest invitee was 12-year-old Jacinta Kasume who said she already read about Zuriel on her last visit in December and just wanted to meet and thank her for all she is doing for girls in Africa.
Having spoken to more than 24 355 children in 11 countries about education, Zuriel already has more than 2 000 new Facebook followers from Namibia alone since last December, and after this workshop, more are bound to follow, as they receive updates on her various global activities, and via her blog zaaiblog.com.
She has now met 18 presidents and prime ministers along her education journey, including President Hage Geingob at the State House.
– Dream Up, Speak Up, Stand Up Team
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