Stories for Girls’ Rights and Global Change
The power of a good story can inspire us to action and teach us about the world around us.
Our Embedded Storytellers program mini-documentary film series shows the challenges and triumphs that women and girls face. We work with locally-based filmmakers and photographers around the world to capture stories about girls’ rights and the people who champion them – told in their own words.
Watch the mini-docs below to meet determined optimists who are fighting for equality, girls’ access to education and health rights, and more.
When people speak the same language, the conversations stop being merely communicative. People can speak with their hearts because they can speak in their heart’s language.”
Latest news
Our latest film, The Price of Dreams – directed by Academy Award nominated filmmaker Hà Lệ Diễm – is already making waves. Following its Best Human Interest win at the Documentary Film Festival in Los Angeles and Toronto, the film has been selected for several upcoming international festivals, where its intimate, human centered storytelling around the subject of early, forced child marriage continues to resonate.
Here’s what some reviewers had to say:
- “Wow, this is so good! I love how this beautiful girl decided to share her story and be so brave.”
- “It was an amazing documentary. It explores a very complex subject.
- “I didn’t know that this was still so common for this to happen… I loved that it was told in a more story format; it made it more engaging to watch.
- “The Price of Dreams was dope. It did a great job of explaining the intricacies of this situation to an outsider.”
Watch it now and spread the word.
Watch the mini-docs below and meet determined optimists who are fighting for:
Forest Mama, Kenya
Building climate resilience in Kenya
From childhood wanderer to community change maker: Meet Caroline Kiti, whose connection to Kenya’s sacred Kaya Chonyi forest is helping transform her community. Through Plan’s COSME project, she’s channeling generations of wisdom into innovative solutions that lift up other women and protect ancient traditions. Watch how one woman’s vision is seeding hope for an entire community’s future.
Meet the filmmakers“It was inspiring to witness how communities, particularly women, are leading the charge in creating sustainable solutions to climate challenges. Capturing their resilience and ingenuity truly underscored the power of storytelling in driving meaningful change.”
“Caroline’s story beautifully shows how climate solutions and gender equality are deeply intertwined. [Caroline is a] big smiler and an even bigger tree lover; most of my conversations with her were filled with warm smiles, hearty laughter and passionate stories about how much trees mean to her and her community.”
“Discovering Salma’s world, where silence speaks volumes and resilience shines, has been an eye-opening journey. Salma’s story isn’t just about overcoming barriers; it’s a powerful testament to our collective ability to create a more compassionate and beautiful world, one story at a time.”
— Ike Nnaebue, filmmaker and mentor, Nigeria
“Discovering Salma’s world, where silence speaks volumes and resilience shines, has been an eye-opening journey. Salma’s story isn’t just about overcoming barriers; it’s a powerful testament to our collective ability to create a more compassionate and beautiful world, one story at a time.”
— Nigerian filmmaker Ike Nnaebue
Salma, Nigeria
Discover a world where silence speaks volumes
Salma lost her hearing as a child. Being back in school has opened new doors for her. In the Borno and Yobe regions of Nigeria, thousands of girls are unable to go to school because of disruptions or displacement, or because girls’ education isn’t valued. “When I grow up, I want to be a teacher,” signs Salma. “I don’t think anything can stop me.” Salma participated in our Education in Crisis project.
Meet the filmmakersAimalohi Ojeamiren was one of the first participants in our Embedded Storytellers young filmmakers pilot under the mentorship of Nigerian filmmaker Ike Nnaebue. They traveled to northeastern Nigeria where Plan ran an Education in Crisis project to tell Salma’s story. “I will never forget this experience,” says Ojeamiren. “I never imagined I could make a film about someone I can’t verbally communicate with. It’s a top 10 highlight as a filmmaker.”
» Read about the filmmakers' surprise behind-the-scenes discovery.
Zénabou’s Dream, Burkina Faso
Changing her future, one garden at a time
“To change the place of young girls in society, we must help them do the work that boys do,” says 12-year-old Zénabou, who has tenacity and wisdom to spare. Though more than 1 million children in Burkina Faso aren’t in school, in our latest mini-doc, you’ll be inspired by what Zénabou is determined to achieve. “It’s not strength that counts; it’s intelligence,” she says.
» Read more about the Safer Schools for Girls Project that Zénabou took part in.
Meet the filmmakersMallaury Kaboré joined the Embedded Storytellers team as part of a mentorship program that is supporting young women in filmmaking. She worked with Nigerian filmmaker Ike Nnaebue to convey Zénabou’s story. “Being part of Zénabou’s life was an extraordinary experience,” Kaboré says. “Despite the challenges in her family situation and limited resources, at such a young age she is already fully aware of her immense potential. As a woman, I was honoured to work on this project and to have the opportunity to offer her a small example of female leadership.”
Second Acts, Sierra Leone
Female teachers championing girls’ education
When Eunice left school, she was living out a story that’s common for many young women in Sierra Leone, where 75% of girls don’t continue their education after primary school. “When you become a [school] dropout, you feel isolated,” she says. Leaving school might have been the norm, but this short film follows the unusual opportunity that allowed Eunice to take a very different path – and to offer a different example for other young girls.
Eunice is one of 200 young female trainees in our Teacher Training for Inclusive Girls’ Education project.
Meet the filmmakers“The Embedded Storytellers program aligns with a participatory and community-centric approach, ensuring the stories told are accurate and that they also uplift the communities involved,” says filmmaker Sessy M.J. Kamara.
Choosing Freedom, Tanzania
The fight for a fate without child marriage
When Neema and her mother defied a long-standing tradition, they risked losing their main source of income – and their status at the heart of their community.
The tradition is called chagulaga, and it’s how young girls are pressured to choose a man to marry. It can get violent. When it’s over, the chosen men feel pride. The young girls... their futures have been narrowed to one path: early marriage. Discover how Neema sparked a community-wide push for change.
» Learn more about Neema’s decision and how Plan helped.
Meet the filmmakers“Spending time with Neema made me realize that having the freedom to play is a huge privilege not everyone gets,” says Cece Mlay, filmmaker for Kijiweni Productions. She spent only a few days with Neema in her small community in rural Katavi, Tanzania, but she was struck by what the 16-year-old has already had to face in life.
“Filming moments of joy and reprieve on the football field stood in stark contrast to the adult responsibilities she carries most of the time. The [Plan-led] youth club gives Neema and her friends a chance to reclaim part of their day to be young.”
The Price of Dreams, Vietnam
Can one conversation change a life?
Where Ngân lives, nearly 60% of people (most of them girls) are married before the legal age. In her world, dowries decide destinies. But at age 15, she dares to ask for a future of her own. This mini-documentary by Oscar-shortlisted filmmaker Hà Lệ Diễm is told entirely in Ngân’s voice: her diary entries, her thoughts, her reflections. The big question: Will her mother return the dowry?
Meet the filmmakersHà Lệ Diễm usually spends months or years to make her documentaries. For The Price of Dreams, she had six days. But it was worth it for this story. “It was an honour to film such a personal and meaningful story,” she says. Diễm’s first feature film, Children of the Mist, was shortlisted for Best Documentary at the 95th Academy Awards.
Useaking’s Journey, Bangladesh
Lifting the veil off early marriage.
When Useaking was 16, she met a young man, and a year later they ran away together and married. She thought it would bring her freedom. It didn’t. In our first ever mini-doc filmed in Cox’s Bazar, discover how she’s ensuring that other girls keep their options open, with help from our LEAP project. “[Girls who study and work] can live freely and go wherever they want,” she says. “If I had known, I might have made different choices.”
Meet the filmmakers“I think that taking a documentary-style approach to storytelling shows the actual raw emotions,” explains documentarian Elizabeth D. Costa, who filmed Useaking’s Journey in Cox’s Bazar. “I’m from that community, so there’s a genuine connection.”
No Shame, Zimbabwe
Dads and daughters talk periods together
Most young people have things they don’t talk about with their parents. But for Sandengomusa and Thembinkosi, the taboo around talking periods with their fathers was putting their futures at risk. So they decided to make new norms with their dads and open the lines of communication about their periods, their bodies and their health.
Meet the filmmakers“I came into contact with people whose lives had been completely changed,” says Patricia Mabviko, founder of Media Zone, the team that created our three mini-docs from Zimbabwe. “This was an enlightening and empowering experience for me as a storyteller.”
Wave Maker, Peru
From one teen to another – preventing teenage pregnancy
In this short film, Natsumi speaks candidly about her life as a daughter, sister, role model and mentor in a community where one in five adolescents is pregnant. “What is missing in society? What is missing in families? What is missing overall so that we stop seeing these kinds of problems?” she asks.
Meet the filmmakers“We’re from a different part of Peru, but we’re Peruvians. So people we met felt more natural with us, so we could get footage that was authentic,” explains Gina Rosas, audio-visual producer at Qajsiri Films, the creators of Wave Maker and Handmade Activist.
Lesson Plan, Zimbabwe
The power of perseverance
First, Tanyaradzwa faced a risky seven-kilometre walk to school. People came out of their homes to mock her and tell her that her education would amount to nothing. Then, she was forced to drop out altogether. So how did she end up studying at the University of Zimbabwe? Find out what it took in this mini-doc about Tanyaradzwa, who took part in our DREAMS HIV-prevention project.
Going Door to Door, Zimbabwe
When simple solutions save lives
A warehouse sits filled with life-saving mosquito nets. But many of the families who needed them had to walk up to nine kilometres to get there. These communities in rural Zimbabwe came up with a creative solution to deliver the nets directly into people’s homes. Watch the mini-doc to find out how these nets are getting around.
For Media Zone’s videographer, Kingston Musanhu, meeting then 19-year-old Tanyaradzwa from Lesson Plan was an encounter to remember. “It was heart-rending to know that everything around her was constantly shifting, but she derives strength from her education. This was so much in character with the Tanyaradzwa we spent the day with: focused, grounded and determined.”
The Power of Faith, Guinea
Finding influence in unexpected places
Changing norms doesn’t happen by trying to alter a community’s belief system. It happens by finding a way to shift people’s thinking without undermining the values they hold dear. That’s the challenge that religious leader Bangoura Moustapha faces when he works to raise awareness about HIV and STI prevention in a region where many people consider it taboo to talk about sex.
Bangoura Moustapha received training as part of our Eradicate TB & HIV in Guinea project.
Meet the filmmakers“The most challenging aspect of this film was to capture the essence of the community and make sure I translated that in a concise and respectful way,” says filmmaker Sayon Kourouma. “We were filming in my maternal grandmother’s hometown region, so I know the area well and I speak the local language. A local perspective brings authenticity and depth that only someone rooted in the culture and context can offer.”
Invisible Wounds, Ukraine
The stories we don’t see
When Russia’s full‑scale invasion shattered life in Ukraine, a generation of young people was thrust into fear, loss, and constant uncertainty. Danylo witnessed it firsthand. He joined a study on boys’ and young men’s mental health – revealing how they’re expected to protect and provide, but never ask for help. Buried pain turns into what the resulting Invisible Wounds report calls “maladaptive coping.” Danylo calls it survival. Watch his story unfold.
Meet the filmmakersMichal Korta is an award-winning portrait and documentary photographer, and filmmaker from Poland.
“War is like radiation – the aftermath spreads invisibly, touching countless aspects of daily life far from the front. Meeting Danylo made me realize how much lies beneath the surface of statistics and news stories. Behind every number is a person with dreams, fears, and the quiet determination to keep going despite everything.”
Su’s Breakthrough, Myanmar
From betel-leaf seller to health advocate
Watch how Plan International’s Thanaka project helped a shy betel-leaf seller transform into a champion for comprehensive youth health care. “At my age, I didn’t know anything about sexual health,” says Su. Now 20, she’s teaching young women in Myanmar about their health and rights. Su’s story proves the power of one voice in sparking change.
Displaced, Haiti
Hidden resilience
“I used to be a beautiful child... But since I got here, I became like a rat,” shares 15-year-old Isabelle*. She is one of three teenage girls who share their stories in this powerful nine-minute documentary. Their voices offer a rare glimpse into life inside displacement camps in Port-au-Prince, where thousands of families live in horrific conditions, chased from their homes by violent armed groups.
But in the midst of a crisis the world has ignored, in the voices of three young girls, resilience takes on new meaning.
» Hear more from our Embedded Storytellers on what they witnessed inside the camps.
*The girls’ names have been changed to protect their safety.
Meet the filmmakersFor camera operator Marc André Bonne Année, from the Haitian film company BWB Films, making the mini-doc was painful, but also meaningful.
“This was my way of standing with [the people in the camps],” he says. “I felt a deep sense of responsibility. Looking into their eyes and hearing their voices, it made me realize that statistics and news reports can never capture the full human cost of what’s happening. [But] sharing their stories is a way of honouring their resilience.”
Diary of a Maasai Girl, Kenya
School offers a safe haven for girls fleeing violence
Poria attends a school in Kenya where many of the Maasai girls have escaped early marriage and/or female genital mutilation. In this short film she explains how the unexpected offer of a kind neighbour set her on a course to transform herself, her classmates and her community. “[We will be] great women in society: ladies of substance, ladies of integrity and ladies who [can] depend upon themselves… and be great leaders of tomorrow,” says Poria.
Meet the filmmakersArmstrong Too had four hours to interview Poria, gather footage (including aerial shots) and take photos. But the Kenyan filmmaker managed to make it all happen. “Discovering that Poria’s father, who likely never had a formal education himself [and has 35 children], has taken a remarkable step by deviating from Maasai traditions to champion all his daughters’ education, including Poria’s, was truly inspiring,” says Too. “Plan International Canada’s shift in storytelling approach, emphasizing the protagonist and allowing the audience to immerse themselves in the protagonist’s experiences, is a strategic move that is bound to captivate a larger audience.”
Too also traveled to Tanzania with Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Plan International’s Global Celebrated Ambassador, to film her experience meeting a group of inspiring young girls in the rural Geita region.
Handmade Activist, Peru
Empowering women, one tamale at a time
Susana knows that violence is happening to women around her. She also knows most people won’t talk about it. “Sometimes people don’t know that others will help them, because no one has taken the time to offer,” she says. In this mini-doc, discover how Susana is breaking the silence. Believe it or not, it starts with throwing a great party.
» Read more about the We Decide project that partnered with Susana.
Meet the filmmakers“We’re from a different part of Peru, but we’re Peruvians. So people we met felt more natural with us, so we could get footage that was authentic,” explains Gina Rosas, audio-visual producer at Qajsiri Films, the creators of Wave Maker and Handmade Activist.
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