Stamp Out Oncho is a campaign idea that Cloud9Media came up with on behalf of the Mectizan Donation Programme, to galvanise ministers of health around Africa to take an interest in eliminating the crippling and unnecessary disease, onchocerciasis or River Blindness.

The success of the campaign, to get everyone to take Mectizan to protect them from River Blindness, has been enabled by village health workers like Edoa Pierre, one of many community drug distributors who travel miles and miles to deliver Mectizan in communities around Cameroon.

Cloud9Media spent an action-packed week in Western Uganda to create video and photographic coverage for TV presenter Charlie Webster’s recent trip as she saw with her own eyes the impact of malaria – and come to terms with a fatal disease that she caught herself two years ago.

In the UK a Montessori education is usually only accessible to those that can afford it. Thanks to Sustainable Coffee Bay, Ikhaya Labantwana offer free Montessori education to a remote community in Coffee Bay, South Africa.

This Cloud9Media passion project was a chance see life through the eyes of the local children, witnessing the amazing impact this very alternative education method can have, giving them confidence, independence and hope for the future.

This film was produced as part of a suite of material gathered on two trips to India and Zanzibar for use as an advocacy tool to support GSK’s donation programme. Having the children tell us their stories meant we needed to find confident speakers – no easy task in Zanzibar where traditionally young girls can be cripplingly shy. So we used a local fixing company to meet potential contributors, source the best stories and start to weave together a narrative that speaks to the heart – and the parent in all of us.

Back in the UK we translated interviews, re-scripted and looked to use voiceover artists from the local African and Indian diaspora of London. This helped keep the child’s voice at the centre of the narrative whilst avoiding the use of subtitles which can distract from the core action.

Getting people to stand up and take action is at the core of the Mectizan Donation Programme’s remit. Especially when the intended audience are Ministers of Health in African countries. This is the first of a series of films intended to get key influencers to commit to putting their name to a 30 year-long elimination programme – ridding Africa of River Blindness or onchocerciasis. If we work together we can stamp out oncho!

We used a local fixer to go in search of stories that were set up in advance of our shooting producer director’s arrival. We then worked with a wonderful local photographer and camera assistant to create a more integrated team and integrate more in to remote and challenging settings.

It started off a relationship with Cameroon and Nigeria that continues to this day, adding to the list of the many African countries that we have ties with.