The Story of DARAJA: Resurgence and KDI commission top African creative
Resurgence and its Kenyan partner, Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI), have hired highly respected Kenyan creative, Ondivow, an award winning filmmaker and photographer, to produce a short film feature telling the story of the award-winning DARAJA* project.
“In hiring Ondivow, we wanted to demonstrate our commitment to working with top local industry talent in Kenya. Ondivow clearly has the cinematic approaches and storytelling skills to make the DARAJA project and its uniquely collaborative process accessible to wider audiences.’ says Mark Harvey, CEO of Resurgence.
Ondivow has a range of commercial and public sector clients including: LG Electronics E.A, Infinix Mobile, the German Embassy in Kenya, and the first Kenyan to make the recent Grammy Awards Consideration List, the award winning recording artist, Octopizzo.
Ondivow says, “The impact of the pandemic was a reminder that where I grew up in Nairobi, the neighbouring informal settlements are sometimes the last to receive assistance from the outside world. So, I am delighted to be working with Resurgence and KDI to explain how the DARAJA weather service has made such a critical and positive change to the lives in my neighbourhood.”
Ondivow has teamed up with James Kirika, a local community leader, to tell the story of DARAJA. He will be following James through the alleyways of his local community settlement in Kibera. The film will accompany James into the local radio station, Pamoja FM, and national weather agency, the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD), two organisations that have played a key role in DARAJA.
James’s interactions with key actors in the project – Red Cross officials, urban civil contingency managers, and radio station chiefs – allow Ondivow’s camera to capture some very candid discussions on the challenges and transformational progress made on providing his fellow community residents with improved weather forecasts and early warning services.
The Story of DARAJA is currently in post production and will be released by Resurgence and KDI in the coming weeks. For further advance information on the The Story of DARAJA, please contact dilupa@resurgence.io
*DARAJA is a UK FCDO (UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office) funded project of the **Met Office-led Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa (WISER) Programme. DARAJA means ‘bridge’ in Swahili. DARAJA aims to improve the climate resilience of vulnerable populations living in informal settlements in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya by building bridges between communities and weather and climate information providers.
DARAJA is being delivered by a consortium comprised of Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI) in Nairobi, the Centre for Community Initiatives (CCI) in Dar es Salaam, and led by Resurgence. Within two years of launching, DARAJA has received Grade A reviews from the Met Office, and won a prestigious innovation award from the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP), placing it in the top 6% of innovative resilience projects worldwide. DARAJA has also been shortlisted in the British Expertise International Awards for in the category of International Collaborative Project.
DARAJA is receiving additional support to scale out of Nairobi and Dar es Salaam into other global cities, from the EIT Climate-KIC, the EU ‘s leading public private climate innovation partnership.
**The Met Office, the UK’s national meteorological service.