10x10 Photo Exhibit Opening Reception, sponsored by Intel & USAID - October 20th, 2011

>> It is a real pleasure to be here today. It is a pleasure in particular because it coincides with what indeed has been a remarkable whole week of activities, but I get focusing mostly on today's programs; highlighting the partnerships that the United States Agency for International Development is proud to have with a number of private sector companies, NGOs, others throughout the world. This is the new world that we live in, it is all about partnerships and let me say going in that the one principle that we've all established and this comes directly from Moore O'Neil is that no one, no government agency, no private corporation, no foreign government has a monopoly on good ideas and resources on ground truth, or on moral authority; and this partnership that we have with Intel that started in 2004 is perhaps the -- one of the best examples of that. It is a partnership which benefits both of us; it is not corporate social responsibility in the sense of charity or in the sense of giving that is not accountable, giving that is not measurable. It meets the objectives of both of our operations and for that reason, it's sustainable and it has a special meaning. >> We're really honored to be able to bring these beautiful photographs to all your attention and thanks to the agency and our partners at 10 by 10; we actually did pull this off in less than two weeks time. It's been an amazing preview of an amazing project and just since we've worked with the agency for many years on partnerships, 10 by 10, to me, is just another extension of partnering at a whole new level for us and for the organizations involved, and I'm going to ask Martha to join me here because I'm going to make you explain, but Martha is one of the photographers and producers of the film. And the reason Intel got involved in this project is we've been involved in education and working with girls and women around the world for years but we see this huge lack of awareness in our own market here in the U.S. and in many countries, and that people really don't understand the true value that can be brought forth when you invest in a girl, and how she'll educate her community, and we do so many problems in her country and built the GDP country. So we felt that the way to really reach the most people is through the media that they'll love, which is movies and social media so that's what this project is about. It's a partnership with corporate players but also really upstanding NGOs around the globe and you'll see them commented on in different photographs. We are working closely to make this multifaceted so our employees are getting very engaged in a very grass-roots level in volunteering with the NGOs, and learning about these issues and becoming experts and spokespeople. We're hoping to engage our supply base and many of our corporate partners that we work with every day on other things, and as Martha has come here to tell you is give you a glimpse of what the project is so that you'll be excited to get involved. >> So thank you so much, I am deeply, deeply grateful to USAID for having this opportunity. In terms of Intel, I've been making films for a long time and I [inaudible] usually my projects don't [inaudible] together for a National Geographic had a corporate sponsor, so when I think of in terms of corporate sponsor and the check that arrives and I do my work and I don't know the face behind that check so Intel, I feel like it's a good problem to have with a word -- with a term corporate social responsibility doesn't do justice for what they've done for us. We're based in LA, Intel comes to our office and they sit across from us pretty much right there in the state of the filmmaking and just one little tidbit from the field as I recently came back from India and I was shooting at a school at the slums [inaudible] and it was an afterschool program and it was, you know, it was sewer everywhere and plastic was burning at the [inaudible] and little bits of plastic was floating through the air and very, very tough circumstances and then all of a sudden the kids started scrambling and there's lots of giggling, lots of excitement, and I turned to the person and I said what's happening. They said oh, the new computers are here and then of course I went back to LA and I said [inaudible]. Oh yeah, of course we support [inaudible]. So it's a beautiful and profound relationship and I hope now that I am also, you know, can participate on the U.S. [inaudible]. As far as 10 times 10 is concerned, our core cut is [inaudible] it instead of the global awareness campaign in support of girls education. The way that I think of it though is a group of people like David Terry, Paul [inaudible], one of our [inaudible] is an artist; a group of people who believe that the subjugation of girls is no longer successful, that's the way I look at it. I [inaudible] and so when I was given the opportunity to produce a film and to shoot the photographs, you know, I thought it was the opportunity of a lifetime but I also wondered in the back of my head, you know, from my perspective which is LA, it's not in the halls of power, it's not with [inaudible] like yourself, I thought, you know, it's pretty horrible out there. I just didn't know if there was any hope but I wanted to go [inaudible] and so when you sit across from Melba and Osha [assumed spellings], you know, Melba, I don't know if you [inaudible], she was -- her parents arranged a surprise marriage for her and she didn't want to get married and so both sets of parents beat the hell out of her. They basically left her for dead on her wedding day and she spent a month in the hospital, World Vision heard about it and they went and they said would you be willing to prosecute and she said yeah, I'll prosecute, so both sets of parents went to jail. She got out of the hospital, she got out of the hospital a month later, she had nowhere to go back within her house and both her parents had been released from jail. So she's back living with the people who had -- now the great thing about Melba is she survives today by selling moonshine and she uses that money to pay for a girl's program where they go around the schools and they teach girls their right, they do not have to get married early. This [inaudible] I promise you [inaudible] over here, I just have to because Osha, you know, she was sold as a slave in Nepal and she was 11-years-old, she was sold and shipped thousands of miles away to Katmandu or a place she had never -- she didn't even speak the language. And in the middle of the night with like -- with something like 10 cents in her pocket, she snuck out and she trekked back across Nepal to find her home at the age of 11. So the long story short here is that when -- I wasn't sure what I was going to find in the field, I didn't know if it was going to give me a nervous breakdown and my husband was like, oh my God, what's going to happen to you, you're going to be depressed for the rest of your life, you know, it's quite the contrary. What I discovered is that there is so much progress being made and it's -- these girls are game changers, they are the very first girls to break the cycle of poverty. They're the very first girls to be able to read, you know, their mothers didn't read and their mothers didn't write and their mothers had eight children in -- they were married at 12 and these girls -- you ask them, they're like maybe I'll get married at 24. How many kids do you want to have? I don't know, maybe a couple. You know, what do you want to be? Oh, I want to be a math teacher. Do you realize what you're saying? You know, I assume, to me, you know, we pay a lot of attention to mild revolution [inaudible] like here I am [inaudible] and we have to but I just -- I guess my hope is that we'll also pay attention to a more quiet revolution which is the revolution that's really inside these girls 'cause when I put an [inaudible] I'm like you know what, you've got it all on Che Guevara 'cause you are it. So anyway that's all I really have to say, I'm here if anybody wants to talk further about [inaudible] -- >> Yeah, it gets to be more particular. >> Yeah. >> The social action campaign authority started with the partners and the film will be released in 2013 in around major theater movies so you're going to have a lot of opportunities to engage with them, we hope you all will and these are beautiful. And you can be very proud, I mean they've done a great job.