Imagine being 15 years old and having to walk to fetch clean water for your family and the joy of having a well drilled in your village.
The local nonprofit Maji Hope will premiere its immersive …
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Imagine being 15 years old and having to walk to fetch clean water for your family and the joy of having a well drilled in your village.
The local nonprofit Maji Hope will premiere its immersive movie "A Walk for Water," at the Daphne Civic Center Feb. 20.
The movie has been a labor of love by the Brodie family who founded Maji Hope in 2009 after Lisa Brodie visited Africa. Since founding the nonprofit, Brodie's have completed 50 water projects ranging from laying pipes from an existing well to drilling 500-foot-deep wells in areas most people can't drill.
"I had gone to Africa three summers in a row and had seen women and young girls walking for water," Lisa Brodie said. "I came home and just kept telling my husband we had to do something. We looked and tried to find another organization that did what we wanted to do, which was drill for water and take people and students with us."
When the Brodies couldn't find an organization that aligned with their mission they founded their own. Lisa and her husband Curtis both have backgrounds as educators and wanted to allow students to do something impactful for others at a crucial point in their lives. The Brodie's own five children have been a part of the organization and work in Tanzania.
Drilling 500- to 600-foot-deep wells run by solar power is not cheap and over the years the organization has fundraised in varying ways. They started with elementary children. They would go into the schools and talk with the students about the work Maji Hope does in Africa. Each student was given a bottle of Maji Hope bottled water that they would enjoy and then filled the empty bottle with change. When the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools, the organization had to change its fundraising.
The Brodie family owns and runs Brodie's Cream and Bean in Silverhill. They added items from Africa to their shop and used the shop to inform people about Maji Hope. Much of their fundraising has been done through word of mouth but that is about to change.
After the family visited an immersive art exhibit that spawned an idea of how to share Maji Hope with more people.
"As we walked through, all of us kept saying we could somehow do something like this for Maji Hope," Brodie explained. "We went to lunch after we had gone through this exhibit and discussed how we could do this."
The Brodie family's idea was to create a movie that immersed people in the experience of walking to find water and then the joy of finally having a well drilled. The Brodie's five children participated in the making of the movie thanks to their photography and videography skills.
The family had ideas of what they wanted for the film and practiced parts of the movie on past trips. Last summer, they went to Tanzania for a regular drilling mission but came prepared with a plan for the film. Armed with different cameras, a custom GoPro setup up and a drone, they captured the footage. One of the Brodie's sons took on the editing once home. The family also found a production company to assist with the movie event.
"A Walk For Water," immersive movie experience begins as soon as guests walk into the Daphne Civic Center lobby where they will be greeted with large African animal canvases and music. Once seated in the civic center, the massive floor-to-ceiling, 90-foot-wide curved screen will give movie guests the feeling of walking with the 15-year-old girl who stars in the movie.
After the film, guests will then walk through an area set up to resemble a rural African village market. Brodie has imported a shipping container full of beautiful African art, baskets and other items for guests to purchase.
All proceeds from the market and movie go to fund Maji Hope's future projects. When asked if there was a fundraising goal, Brodie said she hopes to raise enough to fund 30 water projects. Due to the nature of the projects, she said it is hard to put a number on 30 projects because some are small but some are large and expensive.
The "A Walk For Water" movie will be shown at various times beginning Tuesday, Feb. 20 through Friday, Feb. 23, and again Monday, Feb 26, through Wednesday, Feb. 28. Daytime tickets are $10 and evening shows are $15. Brodie said there have been many school and church groups that have purchased tickets.
To find out more about Maji Hope, the movie experience or to purchase tickets, visit www.majihope.org.
