PROTECTION was made by award-winning South African filmmakers – Emmy award-winning director Francois Verster, and producer Neil Brandt and his team from Fireworx Media.

Jill Lewis, the film’s executive producer, had run workshops on gender-focused HIV awareness and participative pedagogy with many of the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Education Programmes in Africa, including in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Uganda, Kenya, DR Congo, Burundi, Sudan, Somalia and Somaliland – with further gender-focused HIV experience in South Africa, Senegal, Morocco, Estonia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Serbia.

The Norwegian government (Norad) provided generous financial support, enabling us to film in three corners of the continent and distribute the film widely among non-governmental and community-based organisations, educational institutions, international agencies, faith groups and many other groups working to prevent the spread of HIV.

The Sonke Gender Justice Network, a South African non-profit organisation linked to the MenEngage Africa alliance, works with men and boys across Africa to promote gender equality, prevent domestic and sexual violence, and reduce the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS.

The film project also had a dynamic international advisory group, comprising people highly experienced in different aspects of HIV prevention work, who supported the development of its vision and sparked ideas over the past five years. 

Throughout, the project received key encouragement, support and inspiration from the Education and Gender sections of the Norwegian Refugee Council. It was also given enabling backing to sound out its possibilities and further efforts to promote its vision by the MedHum Action Committee of the Norwegian Medical Students’ Association and by Hampshire College, Amherst (US).

• Sonke Gender Justice
• Fireworx
• Norad
• One Man Can
• MenEngage