Waubonsee Community College

Good fortune, directed and produced by Landon Van Soest

eng

videorecording

For College; Adult audiences

Good fortune

electronic resource

747796564

directed and produced by Landon Van Soest

74

Global business and economics in video

Are international aid programs in Africa undermining the very communities they aim to help? Good Fortune is a rare and intimate portrait of two vibrant Kenyan communities, one rural, one urban, battling to save their homes and businesses from large-scale development organizations. Both communities believe the aid projects will devastate their lives and are organizing to fight back. Part I: Jackson and Dominion Farms. In the rural countryside, an American company is threatening to flood Jackson's family farm. The company has invested over $21 million in a commercial rice farm in the region that they say will stimulate the economy, create employment, and provide infrastructure. But to irrigate its farm, the company is planning to flood over 1100 acres of local farmland, including the homes of 500 families like Jackson's. As water reaches his doorstep, Jackson organizes his community and vows to fight to protect his land. Part II: Silva and the Slum Upgrading Project The successful midwife Silva Adhiambo lives in Kibera, Africa's largest squatter community. Her home and business are being being demolished as part of a United Nations slum-upgrading project. The government and the U.N. insist the evictions will be temporary but the residents do not believe them. Silva, her husband and her neighbors organize to stop it. The film suggests that poor people should not be passive recipients of well-intentioned international aid programs that affect their lives Part 1: 35 min. Part 2: 39 min. (the educational version)

general