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The June / July field visit to Afghanistan this year was a key one for No Strings, with the distribution phase of the ChucheQhalin project now very much underway.
The actor Hugo Speer, a No Strings patron, played a key role in the various demonstrations to children that were undertaken, and in handing over the media bikes to our local partner OMAR.
The bikes themselves were a huge success, and look set to be a key means of getting the film, now dubbed into both Dari and Pashtu, the two main Afghan languages, out to groups of children around the country. OMAR, the Organisation for Mine Clearance and Afghan Rehabilitation, is also in the process of getting the film broadcast on its new television channel.
The security situation was an important feature of the visit. A number of British soldiers were killed in Helmand during our time there, and there was a series of eight bombs in Kabul itself while we were there which hindered people's movement.
That said, we were able to fulfil the key aims of the trip, which were to hand over the two media bikes and the ambulance units to staff at OMAR, and Mike and Ian, our two eRanger colleagues who joined us, were able to pass on full handling instructions. In addition, the field tests with the bikes went very well.
The first demonstration took place at the village of Qalazinmpr Khan on the mountainous outskirts of Kabul, where we showed the film to a group of 180 school children and parents.
The road there was rough and very steep but the bikes handled the terrain easily. Hugo drove the media bike and one of the OMAR guys drove the ambulance, with a freelance cameraman, Ash Sweeting, doing the footage.
This will be incorporated into the rest of our documentary coverage for the JustMedia film, which we are hoping will be fully edited by the end of the year.
The bike was driven into the back of the school, a very basic facility which was largely made of canvas, and the screen went up inside one of the canvas tents.
We were successfully able to adjust it to get it right for the light.
OMAR is now developing a blackened tunnel tent to fit inside the sidecar unit with the rest of the cinema equipment, as the film is obviously hard to see in bright daylight. It will make it possible for an audience to sit outside and watch while the screen itself is darkened off. Our early experiments with this worked very well.
The children responded very well to a question-and-answer session afterwards, reciting whole pieces of dialogue they had heard rather than just answering with simple yes and no's. This was the first time that the Dari version of Chuchi had been shown.
The second demonstration took place in a specially-erected marquee at OMAR.
Formal invitations had been sent out to the various ministries, embassies, donors, UN and NGO community, etc. All had accepted, but a second day of insecurity in Kabul meant that a number, such as the UN and American Embassy officials, were unable to come. 'White City' had been declared, a UN security term for not leaving your compound.
Fortunately, however, many people could make it, including Richard Hardiman and his staff from the British Embassy, Reuters, the Financial Times, Jan McArthur from Internews, various Afghan ministers and their staff, and various OMAR guests, etc.
About 80 children from OMAR's outreach projects were there also. This was the first time the Pashtu version was shown. Again, there was a very extensive Q&A for about 45 minutes afterwards, which was hugely successful. The kids again responded brilliantly to the film and were able to respond and in some cases recite the relevant passages entirely.
There is no question that the film is hitting all the right notes, and also the length seems to be absolutely spot on.
No Strings also made a number of visits to the Aschiana street kids project which we have been supporting over the years, and with eRanger's financial input we have agreed to help fund their own mine-awareness programme, which overlaps greatly with our own.
There remains a great deal of interest in expanding our role in Afghanistan, and particularly in terms of producing a film, or series of shorter films, based on the use of opium and now the increase in popularity of needles. As a consequence, the country has seen a significant rise in numbers of people with HIV / Aids.
The British Embassy is keen for No Strings to submit a concept paper on this area by September. The Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics is also keen to be involved, and OMAR are keen to work with us in this area, too.
As we were made aware of a similar drugs / HIV Aids problem in Indonesia, we may be able to use similar storylines for both countries. Clearly, the issue affects countries the world over, and using very similar storylines but different puppets sensitive to individual cultures means that we can work much more efficiently.
A little of the history
Chuche Qhalin is a tale loosely based on the story of Pinnochio that uses specially-made, culturally-sensitive puppets based on Afghan folklore. Chuchi is a little carpet boy who must learn to get to school and back safely, without being lured by two evil 'djins' into looking for treasure in old, deserted houses and so on, before he can become a real boy.
The film will be distributed around the entire country by mobile cinemas, transported on lorries. More innovatively, it will also be taken to remote outreach communities by motorbikes which each have their own sidecar containing a screen large enough to be seen by upwards of 500 people, and a generator.
The eRanger media bikes, the brainchild of a British company The Ranger Production Company sponsored by Prince Bandar Bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia and supported by Nelson Mandela, were provided as part of an ongoing donation programme by sponsors' of the Ranger Production Company. The visit is a key one as it will demonstrate the enormous versatility of the vehicles and the huge scope for educational humanitarian programmes.
The off-road bikes are combined with specially designed and built sidecar units, and the company is also donating two ambulance units and bikes.
Hugo, who lives in North Yorkshire, will star in Sorted, a key six-part drama series about postal workers, which starts on July 16 2006.
He said: "I believe very passionately that an organisation like No Strings can help a large number of people in various developing countries, and we are working on new educational projects all the time."
"We're also delighted to be the first NGO to work alongside eRanger. It's been an amazing coincidence as I live in the same village as their chairman, Robert Deacon Elliott, and just happened to get into a conversation about it at our local pub. It's almost as if the media bikes were made for this project, and it means that children even in more remote areas of Afghanistan will receive this hugely important safety message about landmines."
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