Greg John (Filmmaker, Presenter)

A systems design engineer by education, a mathematics teacher by profession, Greg John has been deeply engaged in the field of rural African development since first travelling to Tanzania in 2005 on a CIDA internship. During his two years living in East Africa he worked closely with African organizations to help them develop their infrastructure and programming, including the construction of a 2400 square-foot HIV care and treatment centre at a rural hospital. Greg fully immersed himself in Tanzanian life, becoming fluent in Swahili and gaining deep insights into both East African culture and the field of international development. He published a book, Mzungu Days (Victoria, B.C., Trafford Publishing, 2007), about his Tanzanian experiences, and has spoken extensively about the lack of investment in long-term, sustainable solutions he perceived while in Africa. This is his first documentary film.

Sister Placida Mosha (Director – Imani VTC)

Sister Placida Mosha is a Catholic nun of the Order of Our Lady of Kilimanjaro and has been devoted to serving Tanzania’s rural poor for over 40 years. Early in her career Sister Placida completed a diploma and post-graduate work in community development, and has since been involved in building rural African organisations. She founded and built St. Francis School for the Deaf and Blind, but then remarkably turned her attention to other endeavours; in 2002 she founded and began the construction of Imani Vocational Training Centre. Now the director of the school, Sister Placida is a champion of sustainability and maintains a vision for her organization of complete self-reliance. For her efforts to achieve this vision, mainly through the implementation of food- and income generating projects, Sister Placida was awarded the 2008 Women’s World Summit Foundation Prize for Rural Creativity. A truly remarkable individual, Sister Placida Mosha blends sober wisdom with captivating enthusiasm and an inspiring commitment to human dignity.