Stephanie Boyd © Progressio

Stephanie Boyd is in charge of advocacy and training.   She works with the Guarango Cinema and Video Association in Peru.  She is Canadian.

A journalist by training, Stephanie, together with the Guarango Association, produces audiovisual materials illustrating civil society's fight to have its rights respected.   One of her best works with this Association has been the video 'Choropampa, el Precio del Oro' (Choropampa, the Price of Gold), about the Choropampa mine: it has been shown in more than 40 international film festivals, and on television in Peru, Argentina, Canada and the USA.   In addition, more than 500 copies have been distributed in Peru.   Several mining companies, consultants, and financial institutions, like the World Bank, are using the film in their training courses.

Another video, 'Tambogrande, Vale más que el Oro' is also being distributed.   The video illustrates the life of the peasants in the north of Peru in their struggle to save their fragile valley from mining development.

Stephanie works on the promotion of these materials and the production of new ones. Her responsibilities include:

• Advocacy campaigns  
• Relations with the media
• Production of advocacy videos

For Stephanie, cooperation with development is a vehicle linking the North with the South.   'Twenty years ago we were still thinking that "cooperation" was about teaching the people of the South new skills.  Today, I think it has more to do with offering a link which enables the communities of the South to reach the world outside.'

Stephanie's work is a clear example of how to reach large numbers and make a real impact on people's lives.   One of the most gratifying episodes that she remembers was when one of the actors in the Tambogrande video visited a maya community in Guatemala which was standing up to the proposal of building a mine.   They decided to use the audiovisual material to convince them that holding a referendum was a valid alternative to violence.

'Ulises García, one of the participants in the Tambogrande video had gone to Guatemala with a group of Canadian activists to persuade the Maya communities to hold a referendum as an alternative to violence.'   In spite of the initial scepticism about the proposal of a referendum, the showing of the video marked a turning point in the opinions and hopes of the community.   Months later the community of Sipakapa held a referendum in which 98.5% of the participants voted against the mine.   'We were enthusiastic, it was a perfect example of the power of the video transcending frontiers and educating and encouraging to take action.'

After this initial success, they decided that it was important to include Guatemala's referendum in a new film on peaceful resistance.   After many difficulties the film was completed.   'I finally received the video of the Sipakapa referendum - I was surprised that they had included part of our videos on Choropampa and Tambogrande!   They even used the same style to edit the sequence on the referendum, accompanying the images with a song about the Tambogrande referendum which had been recorded by Somos Tambogrande (We are Tambogrande), an activist musical group.'

What happened was a clear example of the power of the image to cross cultures and frontiers.   'I found it incredible that a story of this coastal farmer community of Peru had made such an impact on an isolated Maya community in the Guatemalan mountains.'

'Suddenly all the frustration over getting a copy of the video disappeared, and I experienced one of those rare but intense moments when one says, "Yes, it was worth the trouble." This is why I am here.'

The advocacy programme Stephanie Boyd takes part in is generously financed by the Department for International Development of the British government.