Uvisuals Studios and Ark and Rainbow Development Foundation screens short film – LOTUS

… presents award, certificates to Changemakers and Fellows.

Uvisuals Studios and Ark and Rainbow Development Foundation with support from the Nigeria Youth Futures Fund and LEAP Africa graduates a total of 20 young Microscope Fellows aged 20-25 in tertiary institutions across Lagos State. They were presented with certificates as Fellows with 4 additional youths awarded as dynamic changemakers in Lagos State.

It would be recalled that the Nigerian Youth Futures Fund started a funding stream response support to provide technical and financial support to burgeoning youth-led movements in Nigeria. Seeded by the MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation and Luminate Group and initiated in 2021, the NYFF Project is a five-year initiative dedicated to strengthen, support and enable the youth in leadership, activism and social change through outcome-driven policy engagements and inclusive resourcing that will support youth in shaping and supporting medium and long term national development.

The Microscope Project which kicked off a year ago, with the aim of empowering young creatives is targeted at fostering the promotion of national and democratic values for impactful social change.

In their welcome address, the co-founder of Uvisuals Studios and founder of Ark and Rainbow Development Foundation, Tunde Raphael and Ifenla Oligbinde said that over the last one year, the project has built the capacity of participants on digital tools, grassroots mobilization, and other relevant subjects that would help them make social change in the society. They said that Fellows have also actively participated in producing a social impact short film (Lotus), which was screened on the day of the event.

Delivering his speech at the event, the keynote speaker, Femi Odugbemi, a 4-time Head of Jury of the prestigious Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA) and founding Producer of Nigeria’s longest running soap, TINSEL, stressed the need for more collaboration to unlock the potentials in the film industry. According to Odugbemi, Africa nay Nigeria has beautiful stories to tell particularly with our diversity.

“The most education is self dedication. Our diversity as a people can be leveraged for more exploits and we can’t do this without partnership. You can’t be a thinker if you don’t talk to people. Connection, support, collaboration and partnership is what keeps the creative industry in Nigeria booming and we need youths to dream bigger and think of a better Nigeria”