Help two incredible Aboriginal women get to LA

                              *** DUE TO COVID-19 OUR TRIP TO LA THIS WEEK HAS BEEN POSTPONED ***

The Through My Eyes film festival has been postponed due to COVID-19. We trust, when the new date is announced and the threat has passed, we will be able to attend. If not, there are other festivals later in the year where our documentary has been submitted for screening.

Funds raised will be held in A Women's Calling bank account. If you would like your donation returned, please contact me.

Veronica and Anthea are extremely disappointed, however, trust that they will see their documentary screened as soon as it is safe to travel. They have asked me to pass on their appreciation to everyone who supported this campaign.

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Meet Veronica Walden and Anthea Chong, two women from Doomadgee, a remote and severely disadvantaged Aboriginal community in outback northern Queensland, Australia.

Communities such as this one struggle with issues such unemployment, boredom and crime, and are fraught with challenges such as violence, family breakdown, substance abuse and other social issues. Yet despite such disadvantage in their own lives, these women have gone to incredible lengths to help other more disadvantaged women in Papua New Guinea, which is captured in a six minute minute documentary called A Woman's Calling .

This inspirational documentary been selected to screen at an international film festival in Los Angeles - Through My Eyes , an indigenous film festival for indigenous projects around the world. For two Doomadgee women, the opportunity to travel to Los Angeles to be present at the screening would be the opportunity of a lifetime and a dream come true.

“This is the screening we would really like to go to as it is all about Indigenous people, like us.” ~ Veronica Walden

A Woman's Calling is an inspiring story on how one idea can create meaningful change and empower extremely disadvantaged women in Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG).  It captures the journey of Veronica Walden, and Anthea Chong, two women from Doomadgee, a remote Aboriginal Community, who travel with Yolonde Entsch (Director) to PNG to deliver 330 handmade Moon Sick Care Bags to disadvantaged women in PNG. Each large material drawstring bag contains four washable/reusable sanitary pads, two pairs of good quality underwear, soap, a face washer, a small material bag for soiled pads and a menstrual cycle card.


The documentary has won international and national awards including Best Documentary Short in Changing Face International Film Festival, AFIN International Film Festival and been nominated multiple times. It has been screened at the Big Apple Film Festival and Melbourne Women in Film Festival among many others. A Woman's Calling  is under consideration for many festivals including; Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, Byron Bay International Film Festival and Australian Inspirational Film Festival.

Please follow the link to view A Woman's Calling  and you will understand the incredible and inspirational story of empowerment of Veronica and Anthea.

https://vimeo.com/330668623

Your donation to this campaign would mean literally the world to these two ladies from outback Australia. Let's see them shine in LA!

As a special thank you, Veronica and Anthea would like to send a gift - a bar of Doomadgee Bush Medicine Soap (made by them) to everybody who donates over $100. For donations over $500, the soap and a hardcover book depicting the journey to LA will be forwarded to you.

How will the funds be used?

Yolonde Entsch will accompany Veronica and Anthea to support their safe travels on the trip (leaving Doomadgee for the bright lights of LA is no small feat!). Yolonde is hopeful of securing return flights from two Australian airline companies to aid the transport of the group from Doomadgee to Cairns, Cairns to LA, and back again.

Yolonde has also outlined a need to secure funds for: 
●      Accommodation in Los Angeles for five nights
●      Airport transfers and taxis while in Los Angeles along with meals
●      A couple of new outfits for Veronica and Anthea as the weather is much cooler in LA than 40+ degrees in Doomadgee.
●      Also, as this is a once of a lifetime opportunity for these two women, it would make for a much richer experience to include a tourist attraction or two which have been included in the budget. Can you imagine a photo of them with their hands on a star along Hollywood Boulevard!

More about the Moon Sick Care Bag (MSCB) Packages

To date, more than 1800 Moon Sick Care Bags have been made and distributed throughout 13 Treaty Villages in the South Fly of Papua New Guinea and deep remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.

Each large material drawstring bag contains four washable/reusable sanitary pads, two pairs of good quality underwear, soap, a face washer, a small material bag for soiled pads and a menstrual cycle card.

The story of the combined efforts of Veronica, Anthea, the women of Doomadgee, together with the help of Yolonde, is an inspiring example of how one simple idea and one shared story can create meaningful connection and empowered change for some of the most disadvantaged women in both Australia and Papua New Guinea.
https://www.yolonde.com/moon-sick-care-bags-answer-keeping-girls-school