Help Adhel Fund "Katiba Banat - the First Girls"

Adhel Arop was born in Kakuma refugee camp, near the border between Kenya and Sudan. Her family moved to Nairobi when her mother Amel Madut got a job interpreting through the United Nations. This work helped her family obtain immigration status to relocate to Canada.

Branded a “refugee”, Adhel felt disconnected from her roots and her identity while she was growing up. When relatives hinted she should dig deeper into her mother’s background, Adhel embarked on a research project that opened the door to a life-changing, trauma-healing conversation about her mother’s childhood as a soldier in the Sudanese civil war.

Adhel captured this poignant conversation in her award-winning Telus Storyhive documentary Who Am I? Now, Adhel plans to travel across Canada and around the world to speak to the other women of her mother’s regiment of child soldiers, known as Katiba Banat - the First Girls.

Donations to our documentary pre-production fund will help us - 

 - offset the costs of Adhel's recent research and networking trip to Sudan
 - allow us hire  to a designer and a publicist to support us in the creation of a top notch press kit
 - help keep us going while we wait for decisions on multiple grant applications

We are deeply grateful for your support!