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