Deadline: 12-Aug-22
The U.S. Embassy Suva of the U.S. Department of State announces an open competition for organizations to submit applications to carry out a program to conduct a series of virtual storytelling and filmmaking classes to multiple countries within the Pacific Island Region.
These classes will enable participants to chronical the effects of climate change in their communities and enhance their ability to advocate for the security, economic health, and long-term survival of their countries while raising greater regional and global awareness of the already severe impacts of climate change in the Pacific.
Program Objectives
- Pacific Island Countries (PIC) are the most immediate victims of climate change. Larger, industrialized countries can pledge to reduce emissions and offer climate change financing, but smaller island-nations cannot meaningfully do the same. The PIC’s best tools against global warming are the thousands of stories of how this threat uproots communities and disrupts livelihoods.
- “My Climate Story” will offer virtual filmmaking and storytelling master classes to enable Pacific Islander youth to use their smart phone and tell how climate change affects them, adding a human element necessary to promote a sense of urgency on climate issues.
- Posts’ American Spaces in multiple Pacific Island countries can join other venues in hosting the virtual trainings and provide internet and computer access for editing of short films. Towards the end of the project, participants will enter their films into an Embassy-sponsored showcase to both compete for prizes and broaden awareness of rising sea levels on a larger, international platform.
- PIC leaders already recognize the region’s advocacy power in the fight against climate change. They are vocal participants at international climate summits, where they routinely cite climate change as an existential threat and the region’s greatest security vulnerability. “My Climate Story” expands this role to ordinary citizens, whose perspective is lost in higher level discussions, but is nonetheless essential to move global warming contributors to act.
- Prospective applicants must submit a draft schedule of virtual sessions involving storytelling and filmmaking curriculum, to be conducted over an eight-week period. The implementing organization will also be responsible for tracking and guiding participant progress through regular assignments and constructive feedback. Sessions should focus on using smartphone technology for capturing and editing footage and crafting a compelling narrative. Participants will likely not have access to sophisticated audiovisual equipment.
Funding Information
- Award amounts: awards may range from a minimum of $25,000 to a maximum of $30,000
- Total available funding: Up to $30,000
- Program Performance Period: Proposed programs should be completed in 6 months or less.
Participants and Audiences: The grantee will recruit as many as ten participants per country to take part in the 8-week program, through a competitive application process, and U.S. Embassy Suva will approve the selected participants. Selectees will show an interest in climate change issues and aptitude in social media and content creation.
Priority Region: Pacific Island Countries, to include Fiji, Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Nauru.
Eligibility Criteria
- Not-for-profit organizations, including think tanks and civil society/non-governmental organizations
- Public and private educational institutions
- Public International Organizations and Governmental institutions
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=342649