IKON: Letter From My Child

Letter from my Child Six Heart Breaking Stories Letter from My Child aims to give a human face to front-page news. Personal stories transform, major news events into human tragedies. Children are the future, although their opinion is hardly ever heard. This time IKON TV gives these children a voice.

Ana Raquel, 14Forced to the streets

Darline, 10The Silence After The Quake

Phiona, 14 Queen of the Slums

Esai, 6Sheltered in America

A.L, 14Living with the Disappeared

Shakya, 13Children of bad memories

Letter from my Child Six Heart Breaking Stories

About this series

Series information

The IKON TV-series LETTER FROM MY CHILD consists of six 30' documentaries, which will be broadcast on Dutch national television in June 2011. The series is intended to be broadcast in various other European countries.

The six documentaries will focus on families from six countries all over the world. Countries where families have to bear the consequences of armed conflict, violence or crime, natural and economic disaster, human rights’ violations and social exclusion.

The effects of events that made headlines worldwide are a harsh reality for these people, but they have no power to influence them.
Letter from My Child aims to give a human face to front-page news. Personal stories transform, major news events into human tragedies. Children are the future, although their opinion is hardly ever heard.

This time IKON TV gives these children a voice.

Series Credits

direction
Tessa Boerman (Haiti, Philippines, USA) Gert Corba (Brazil, Uganda)
Ingeborg Beugel (Rwanda)

research
Lotje Dercksen , Els Duran
Ana Bakx (Brazil),Tess Fajardo (Philippines)

camera
Melle van Essen (Brazil,Haiti, Philippines, USA)
Marco Nauta (Uganda), Sonja ter Laag (Rwanda)

sound
Harold Jalving (Brazil,Haiti, Philippines, USA)
Eric de Roode (Uganda), Marjo Postma (Rwanda)

editing
Riekje Ziengs

re-recording
Paul Gies

camera & lightequipment
CAM-A-LOT

online & colourgrading
FILMMORE

scripts & subtitling
INVISION

Design website & leader
TerraLemon

production
Pauline Veltman
Kendy Dorgerville (Haiti), Robert Katende (Uganda)
Kiri Dalena (Philippines), Jan Daniels (Brazil)

editors-in-chief
Gert Corba
Margje de Koning

with special thanks to
Associaçao Beneficente AMAR, Rio de Janeiro
Theo Raben en Marjorie Dorgerville Naider
Marise Vermeule , Wereldouders
COLUMN FILM, Sports Outreach Kampala
Myrna Cruz,
Jess Santiago - composer and singer of Huling Balita, Mena and Karias Ayroso,
Children's Rehabilitation Center - Eilek Manano, Salinlahi - Alliance for Children's Concerns, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines - Mr.Sonny Fernandez,
Desaparecidos - Mrs. Aya Santos, KARAPATAN - DJ Acierto, Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Nederlands-Filippijnse Solidariteitsbeweging - Theo Droog, Angie Gonzales,
Malaya Business Insight - Joy de los Reyes, Che Francisco, Cherish Ortega,
Ellen Tordesillas, Monica Publishing, ASM Trading - George Punzalan,
Aba Dalena, Citizens' Disaster Response Center.

in partnership/ co-production with
EUROVISION SCIENCE
Rai, Radiotelevisione Italiana
The Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company

Letter from my Child Six Heart Breaking Stories

Reactions

Reageer hier op het programma 'Letters from my child'. De reactie verschijnt direct online.

Laatste aflevering
reactie van Birgitta op 25 juli 2011
Ik vond het een mooie, ontroerende serie. Ik vraag me wel af hoe de hoofdpersonen begeleid werden, aangezien de brieven best wat teweeg brengen in hun levens. De aflevering over Shakya en zijn moeder had een te abrupt en onbevredigend einde. Hoe gaat het nu verder met hen?

Shakya
reactie van Lilian Zwart op 25 juli 2011
Ik ben vanavond enorm geroerd door de documentaire over Shakya en zijn moeder, beiden het slachtoffer van verkrachting waaruit hij geboren is. Ik zou graag willen weten hoe het nu met Shakya gaat.

Groet Lilian

Heel indrukwekkend
reactie van Nienke op 27 juni 2011
Wat een bijzondere documentaire. Ik ga de andere afleveringen ook bekijken. Ik werk dagelijks met kinderen, en t idee dat zulke jonge kinderen hun ouders verliezen en alleen komen te staan, is echt verschrikkelijk. Goed dat jullie dit zo scherp in beeld hebben gekregen.
Vriendelijke groet, Nienke

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Letter from my Child Six Heart Breaking Stories

Contact

Get in touch with IKON

IKON can be reached at:

E-mail: ikon@ikon.nl
Phone: 31 35 6727272
PO Box 10009
1201 DA HILVERSUM

Letter from my Child Six Heart Breaking Stories

Mummy, why don't you love me?

Forced to the streets All over the world people migrate from rural areas to the city, in search of a better future. Not in the last place to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s capital that is infamous for its favelas – where, without any presence of authorities, anarchy and violence reign the streets. Drugs trafficking and crime are part of the daily lives of its citizens, physical abuse and molestation continue behind their front doors. Families fall apart easily, when the men are in prison or otherwise leave the household – a lot of the children end up on the streets.

Ana Raquel (14) knows what the streets can do to children. The violence, the drugs - youth and beauty making you a coveted prey… It was not even so long ago that she enjoyed a happy childhood, living with her caring grandmother. But then her granny dies and she is forced to live with her mother and new stepfather. It is not the fighting that chases her to the streets, it is her stepfather molesting her. She is not built for surviving the harsh street life though - fortunately she now lives in a children’s shelter. What aches her is the lack of love and attention that she never had. Then she decides to write a letter to her mother and stepfather.

More information about the children living on the streets in this film on:

Stichting Sint Martinus

Associacao Beneficente AMAR

Vlaams Internationaal Centrum

Letter from my Child Six Heart Breaking Stories

Who will take care of me now?

The Silence After The Quake

On January 12, 2010 Haiti is hit by a severe earthquake. The earthquake causes many victims - leaving them wounded, displaced and deprived. Since the epicentre of the earthquake is located close to the country's capital Port-au-Prince, the reconstruction of Haiti will probably take decades.

The 10-year-old girl Darline is one of those victims. She lives together with her father, a widower, in a small house on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. On a Tuesday afternoon, as she returns from shopping, the earth begins to shake. In a panic, Darline runs into the house. As she makes her way through the falling stones, she sees her father being buried alive under a heavy wall. Darline's home is not inhabitable anymore, she has become an orphan and her country is completely in ruins.

After the chaos and destruction, all that is left is silence.

More information about Haiti after the earthquake on: Wereldouders

Letter from my Child Six Heart Breaking Stories

How did my father die?

Queen of the Slums Those who are born in the hopeless slums of Kampala start with a setback in life, being born a girl doubles this setback. In Kibuli, a slum community of single mothers and neglected children – the youth learn to survive the hard way. But most and for all, they learn from a young age to accept their miserable situation.

This also applies to Phiona (14), who lives with her chronicly ill mother in a shack with walls made of corrugated iron. When a social worker teaches the poor girl how to play chess, her slum life takes an amazing turn. Phiona appears to be extremely talented, in no time she becomes National Chess Youth Champion of Uganda, wins the African Youth Championship in Sudan. Now her victory march takes her to the World Chess Youth Championship in freezing cold Siberia, Russia…

Will she be able to survive in this new world full of competition? And what can Phiona’s new status mean to her mother in their dwelling in Kibuli?

More information about sportprojects in the slums of Kampala on:

Sports Outreach Institute

Letter from my Child Six Heart Breaking Stories

Mummy, Daddy, why do we live here?

Sheltered in America Florida has been hit particularly hard by the recession. Nearly one in ten people are out of work, and it has the second-highest foreclosure rate of the country. Family life turns into tragedy, when homeless parents face the law which takes their children off the streets. Losing your job and house is one thing, but how to avoid losing your children as well?

In this episode we zoom in on the one-room shelter where a former average middle-class American couple desperately try to keep their family together. We follow the story of parents Tony and Dion and their three young boys Esai (6), Elias (5) and Elian (3). Their grandparents came from Cuba to the US in search of a better life. Now the grandchildren, all born in America, ended up with their children in a shelter. Living among the poor and homeless, the American Dream has lost its shine.

How do Tony and Dion explain to their children their current situation, and how do they prepare their children to face an insecure future?

More information about homeless families at: ASAP Homeless Services

Letter from my Child Six Heart Breaking Stories

It is hard, my mom being in prison

Living with the Disappeared The Philippines are a country that is marked by extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and a climate of impunity. Following the election of president Acquino last May, the Philippines hope for a better human rights’ situation in the future. Nevertheless, the election campaign has been one of the most violent ones in the Philippines' history. Last November 57 people were killed in the so called Ampatuan Massacre, among these political killings was a group of 34 journalists.

Letter from my Child tells the story of two boys whose lives are affected because of the human rights’ activities of their parents.

We get to know the story of Layad (15) and his mother Dee whose political active father and husband was abducted by armed men eight years ago.

Then there is the tale of A.L. (14), a talented ballet dancer. He reaches out to his mother, who is detained because of her activism.

More information about human rights activists and their children on:

KARAPATAN

Children’s Rehabilitation Center

Letter from my Child Six Heart Breaking Stories

Mom, I want to know who my dad is

Children of bad memories Shakya, a 13 year old boy with a disarming smile, is only now a few years younger than his mom was when she was raped in 1994. He is one of the estimated 25,000 children of the 500,000 women who were raped during the Rwandan genocide.

Although it is illegal, many raped women in Rwanda had abortions. Some killed their newborn child. Others abandoned their child. Most of the mothers who bore these babies never told their children the truth.

Goretti, Shakya’s mother, is one of them. Shyaka is a smart, inquisitive thirteen year old who has been asking questions about his father for some time now. Also, there are quite a few people in Goretti’s village who know what happened to her. People who know that Shyaka is the result of rape. Will Goretti tell her son the truth about his descent?

More information about the genocide in Rwanda at: ASOFERWA