Last Saturday, Unity Foundation in Luxembourg welcomed 80 people to a film screening of Mercy’s Blessing at Neumünster Abbey, followed by a conference with the director May Taherzadeh. The short film tells the story of a teenage boy in a rural village in the heart of Africa who has a dream: to get his younger sister and himself out of poverty. But when a twist of fate shatters his hopes, everything seems lost and he is faced with the ultimate choice.

During the conference, May Taherzadeh took the opportunity to share with the interested audience how the film has been received by audience all over the world, in Malawi, other African countries, as well as in Europe. The film has won ten awards from festivals all over the world. However, it is even more important for May Taherzadeh that several campaigns in over ten countries have been launched to use this film to encourage the social discourse about human rights, social justice and the importance of education, for example by UNICEF in Malawi.

Unity Foundation started an awareness-raising campaign in 2016 by using this film to inform students in schools all over Luxembourg about the importance of education. The campaign will continue throughout 2017.