Vipi Watoto
(in production)
a documentary on children taken from dump sites, goldmines, fishing boats, rock quarries - and sent back to school. This spring, Len Morris goes back to Kenya to catch up with the former child laborers. Now that they are back in school, how have their dreams and expectations changed?
Retiring Child Labor
for Good
Len Morris speaking at the US Department of Labor
Our Mission
We share the belief that all children have basic human rights that include access to food, healthcare, clean water, medical care, sanitation, access to quality education, protection from violence and exploitation, gender equality, and the right to express their own opinions without reprisal.
Using our films and documentary photography, our websites, youth magazines, and global advocacy, Media Voices works to amplify children’s voices while working to end child labor, trafficking, and slavery in our lifetimes through public education and mobilization.
Our award-winning documentary on child labor, Stolen Childhoods, was viewed by over 100 million people world-wide, broadcast in the United States, Europe, Brazil, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
We have donated thousands of photographs and videos shot by our colleague, U. Roberto (Robin) Romano, to the Dodd Center for Human Rights at the University of Connecticut to make them available for public use.
The Dodd Center for Human Rights (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)
Kenyan Schoolhouse
Going Back to School
Back in 2000, Len Morris and his crew filmed children doing backbreaking work in a coffee plantation in the Rift Valley. When the filming was over, the crew passed around the hat and collected enough money to put all of the child workers in school. This was the genesis of the Kenyan Schoolhouse program, through which thousands of children have now been educated. None of this could have happened without the invaluable help of field officers from The African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN).
Susan Melvin Onyango, a Kenyan Schoolhouse alumna, films kids at her neighborhood school in Mathare.
Know Your Rights
Educational Resources
Our films
From the first film on global child labor, Stolen Childhoods, through our latest documentary, Vipi Watoto, our films explore children’s human rights.
The Curriculum
We also offer Childhood Unbound, an interactive high school curriculum covering the field of children’s human rights over seven units.
MVC Quarterly Magazine
Our magazine is by and about youth, with articles and artwork contributed by young people around the world.
Want to Help?
All of this has been made possible by donations, large and small.
We are so grateful to our sponsors, and our community of donors.
Checks can be mailed to Media Voices for Children, 110 Daggett Avenue, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568