Africa Calling – delivering African messages to the G8 leaders meeting in Gleneagles

Africa Calling is a series of eight short films carrying messages direct from ordinary Africans to the G8 leaders meeting at Gleneagles next week. Filmed by four of TVE's African Partners – from Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone – and produced by TVE in partnership with Christian Aid, the series will be broadcast every night of the week of July 4th on Channel 4 in the UK, as well as on television channels across Africa itself.

The eight vignettes showcased in Africa Calling provide a platform for Africans themselves to participate in the debate on the future of their continent. The films convey the realities of everyday Africa through a series of intimate portraits of individuals – Bola who runs a traditional catering company in Nigeria; Margaret, a Masai jewellery maker in Kenya, or Sulaiman, a Sierra Leonian farmer who lost his arm during the country's civil war. Each of them tells the G8 leaders in Gleneagles preparing to sign up to decisions that will affect the lives of millions of Africans, exactly what they  – real Africans – think.

Twenty-year-old Livvy lives in Namibia and is HIV positive. "I don't want your sympathy," she says.  Instead, what Livvy wants is for world leaders to commit more resources to fight AIDS so that she, and millions like her, can have access life-saving drugs.

Abimbola runs a business manufacturing high quality lenses for spectacles in Lagos, Nigeria. Continuous power cuts, coupled with the lack of a reliable water supply, mean his equipment is always breaking down, making it difficult to keep his business competitive. He explains to the G8 leaders how cancelling the debts of his country would enable Nigeria to invest in improving its infrastructure to boost manufacturing industry.

Sulaiman is a gardener in Sierra Leone.  He wants rich countries to stop selling arms to Africa. "Instead they should build roads, schools and medical facilities, and start thinking about the youth who are the future."

"Much of the debate on Africa around the G8 has focused on involving world leaders and members of the public outside the continent.  As Christian Aid, we are keen to ensure the real voices and opinions of people in poor countries are heard.  Africa Calling gives the opportunity to help redress the balance and we are delighted to be involved in this project," said Jeff Dale, head of marketing, Christian Aid.

"TVE is proud to be facilitating the involvement of African production companies, creative talent and viewpoints in one of the most important debates in the world today," says TVE's Brenda Kelly, Executive Producer of Africa Calling.

Africa Calling is produced by TVE for Channel 4, and global broadcast. Individual stories in the series were filmed by TVE's Partners Communicating for Change in Nigeria (www.cfcnigeria.org), Ace Communications in Kenya (acecom@africaonline.co.ke), Namibia (www.nambiz.com/db2html/Optimedia.html) and Sierra Leone (http://www.efasl.org).

To order tapes of the series, please contact TVE's Distribution Manager, Dina Junkermann (email: dina.junkermann@tve.org.uk). For more information about the series, visit Christian Aid at www.christianaid.org.uk.