The Saving Lives project helped Mariupol students present their film at an international film festival
On October 21, Verona (Italy) hosted the Believe Film Festival with a competition for young film-makers. Thanks to the "Saving Lives" humanitarian project three students from Mariupol University took part in the festival. They made a short film about the brutal attack of the russian army on their hometown.
The film festival was organized by volunteers – all young people - of the Believe association and was addressed to young people from Italy aged 14 to 24 years. This year more than 250 school children and students participated in it.
Art is one of the ways to tell the world about the tragedy that happened in Ukraine because of russian aggression. Therefore, the "Saving Lives" initiative helped three students of the Journalism Faculty of Mariupol University, who witnessed the bloody storming of their hometown by the occupying forces, to take part in the festival. Based on their own experience, their vision and emotions from those dramatic events, they made a short film. And with the support of the humanitarian project, the film could be seen in Europe.
"On behalf of Mariupol State University, I would like to express my gratitude to SCM's "Saving Lives" project for not only providing comprehensive assistance to the internally displaced people from Mariupol, but also taking care of our students, our youth, their professional growth and making their voices heard around the world. Participation of our young film-makers in such a festival is an important opportunity to share with young people from other countries the tragedy of their peers, Ukrainians who are suffering from the military aggression of the russian federation today," - emphasised Mykola Trofymenko, the president of the University.
During the three days of the festival, young Ukrainian artists had the opportunity to meet and tell their peers about their tragic experience and the scale of the catastrophe for millions of civilians caused by the actions of russia.
At the Gala award ceremony attended by more than 300 people, Mariupol students were invited to the main stage of the festival. The audience greeted them with ovations and flowerspaying tribute to the courage and resilience of the young film-makers.
Representative of the "Saving Lives" project also told the participants of "Believe" about the initiatives being implemented in Ukraine. In addition to providing humanitarian aid, one of the project's activities is to stimulate and preserve local education and culture. As well as assistance to students and young people to develop professional skills and knowledge to further involve them in helping to rebuild Ukraine.Participants and guests of the film festival were encouraged to support Ukraine, including through the savinglives.scm.com.ua platform.
As a reminder, thanks to the "Saving Lives" project established by SCM's businesses, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians on the near-front territories have already received food packages, medicines, essentials, etc. The humanitarian initiative actively engages the international community to help Ukraine. About 189 companies from all over the world have become donors to the project. The scale and areas of the aid are growing every month.