“If I was in Bangladesh, I would be discriminated against every day. I would not have an opportunity to go to a school as excellent as I go to today.” Gloria Baroi, 20, came to the US eight years ago as an asylum seeker. Today, she shares her story in 360º as part of our initiative “My People, Our Stories.” In partnership with @AccessCal, we’ve trained four refugee youth living in Southern California on how to create multimedia stories. In anticipation of #WorldRefugeeDay2021, each week we’ll publish a video filmed by refugees exploring their lives in the US.

“The first few months of coming to America were really shocking.” Ahmed Ismael came to Southern California at the age of 12 as a refugee from Iraq. He struggled to find friends as he was made fun of and discriminated against for being a Muslim. Now Ahmed runs “The Positive Community” podcast, teaches Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and is going to start his medical studies this year. Ahmed shares his story in a video he filmed as part of our training initiative “My People, Our Stories,” in partnership with @accesscal. In anticipation of #WorldRefugeeDay2021, we’ve trained four refugee youth living in Southern California on how to create multimedia stories. Each week we publish a new video filmed by refugees exploring their lives in the US. Stay tuned!

“My mom was forced to raise me all alone. She is the greatest influence in my life.” Malak Al-Rubaye, an Iraqi refugee living in Southern California, took up a 360º camera for the first time to share her story as part of our training initiative “My People, Our Stories.” In her video, Malak highlights her mother’s strength and it helped Malak adjust to the new life in America. We trained Malak and three other young refugees in multimedia storytelling in anticipation of World Refugee Day 2021, in partnership with Access California Services.

“I learned the language quicker than my brothers and my parents, so now I have many responsibilities.” @roro_marwan_, an 18-year-old Syrian refugee in the US, shares her story in a video she filmed for #WorldRefugeeDay2021 as part of our training initiative “My People, Our Stories.” Together with @AccessCal, we trained four young refugees living in Southern California in multimedia storytelling, including 360º storytelling. Watch all four videos here: https://aje.io/h4jbqu

Black women that are running as candidates during the 2018 elections emphasize the importance of black representation in politics. Meet Monica Francisco and Tais Ferreira, two women from communities who are candidates for state deputy roles in Rio de Janeiro. Despite the consequences that may follow their political activities specially after the death of Marielle, they still want to raise the voice of black women and black communities and fight against the violence.

Meet Marcela Lisboa, creator of afro cultural content in Rio, who shows us how the lack of attention and investment of the government in culture affects her life and the whole community, especially during Temer´s government. In 2017, the budget of the cultural ministry had a 43% cut, which made it impossible the completion of any projects for the development of Brazilian culture.

Believers of Afro religions in #Brazil face increasing discrimination and are calling upon candidates in the upcoming elections to guarantee the rights of religious minorities. Filmmakers Caroline Tavares and Jonathan Thomaz take you inside the story of Candomblé, one of the many Afro religions in Brazil.

In The Fight of the Homeless, we follow Omri´s path as a member of the initiative that tries to integrate homeless people into other social contexts to consequently bring positive change into their lives.

7 Stories for 7 Years is a compilation of the intimate 360 footage captured by seven young Syrian teenagers in Za’atari refugee camp, as narrated by Game of Throne’s Liam Cunningham. The vignettes showcased are a part of the series, My People, Our Stories, an ongoing initiative to train young, diverse filmmakers to produce VR stories within their communities. Credits Executive: Producer Zahra Rasool Producer: Joi Lee Narrator: Liam Cunningham Directors: Mahmoud Marah Najat Nisreen Obada Tabarak Yousef Editor Joi Lee, Maria Fernanda Lauret Script Editor: Maryam Kazeem Music: Simon Abou Assali Production Assistance: Zena Khoury Amanda Cupido