Summary report on Movie day – “The boy who harnessed the wind”

The movie day began with an opening prayer by the coordinator. Itsekiri Nextgen team proceeded to give out the t-shirts to the different teams.

Sholaye Edun did a brief introduction of the movie before it started. The participants sat quietly and watched with rapt attention. At regular intervals, Sholaye Edun came up to narrate the happenings in the movie. This she did to arouse the interest of the participants and to make them stay focused till the end.  

The movie “The boy who harnessed the wind” was a true-life story that happened in a rural community in Malawi, South Eastern Africa. There was a drought in the community, which led to famine. This led to the collapse of moral values in the community. Some people took to stealing and other social vices. Child marriage was not left out, as William's sister decided to go with the school teacher to reduce the number of persons that will be fed in their family.

Williams refused to get involved in these vices, even as a school dropout. Instead, he thought and came up with innovative ideas to generate water and bring his community out of poverty. Though he was faced with hurdles, nevertheless he harnessed the wind by creating a wind vane with local technology which he used to generate water. The water was channelled to their farmlands and they had a bumper harvest afterwards. 

They were all happy because there was food again in the community. This consequently led to the return of sanity back to the community.

As the movie was on, all participants present were served popcorn and a chilled bottle of zobo drink made by the Itsekiri Nextgen team.  Popcorn and zobo were chosen because it was among the businesses our youngsters intend to venture into.

The zobo was done in a hygienic environment and packaged in new cans with sealed covers as against used cans.  Popcorn was prepared at the program venue while the participants watched the movie. 

Some parents and guardians were present to see the movie with the youngsters. The movie attracted new participants to Itsekiri NextGen program, and they have shown interest to continue to attend. 

At the end of the movie the participants were asked who was their favourite character, in unison, they all answered Williams. Some youngsters gave a brief review of the movie and wished to be like Williams. They wish to solve common problems in and around their immediate community.

The movie can be likened to our present-day riverine communities that lack basic amenities and are faced with economic hardship. We use this medium to advise our youth to think positively and get themselves involved in innovative ideas to solve problems in our communities instead of going into social vices like internet fraud, stealing etc.