Moja Moja Synopsis
Moja Moja documents the compelling story of two women from opposite worlds uniting in a bid to better the lives of disabled orphans in Africa.
Moja Moja is a Swahili saying meaning “One Step at a Time.” The film follows the steps of Vancouverite Susan Standfield as she starts a business based on an entirely new and unique concept of her own creation. Her idea offers an alternative to the paternalistic approach to alleviating poverty in Africa, which traditionally focuses on treating the symptoms rather than the disease. The Children’s Photographic Gallery of Kenya (CPGK) is a project designed to create partnerships with the developed world to allow an impoverished group of children to create their own self-sufficiency and economic freedom, instead of relying on traditional charity handouts.
Dissatisfied with the direction of her life in Vancouver, Susan Standfield decides to merge her interest in the third world with her passion for photography to create a new business model. The essence of the business is to recreate an art gallery experience on a t-shirt. The t-shirts showcase black & white photographs taken by the children of the Samburu Handicapped Education Rehabilitation Project (S.H.E.R.P)in Kenya, and combine them with traditional Swahili expressions to create original, walking, one-of-a-kind expressions of art.
In Kenya, disabled children are usually seen as a curse by their families and abandoned once their disability becomes visible. S.H.E.R.P. is an orphanage whose goal is to rescue as many of these children as possible. Sue approached Grace Seneiya, the founder of S.H.E.R.P, with a proposal that would allow the children in her orphanage to develop self-employment skills by harnessing their own creativity.
Moja Moja unfolds one step at a time, beginning from one woman’s naïve, idealistic dream to the eye-opening realities of an African orphanage for disabled children. The experiences of these children translate into on-screen images that are emotionally charged and sometimes shocking. We follow the development of this remarkable project that brings together the vision of two strong, likeminded women in their efforts to provide these children with hope, dignity and opportunity.
