A Memorable Episode for Dussault Inc. in Africa with the Obakki Foundation

The ‘Africa Calling’ episode of Dussault Inc., that aired Saturday, December 10^th on Citytv, was an incredibly special and life-changing experience for our cast and crew, as it took us to villages and orphanages in Cameroon, Africa to help the Obakki Foundation. If you missed this episode, you can watch it online from Citytv Video.

The Obakki Foundation is an inspirational charity started by Obakki, the Luxury Fashion Line.

“The Foundation supports humanitarian causes by finding and nourishing creativity in all pockets of the world. It offers people hope, empowerment and the chance to learn and grow. It’s about giving people the opportunity to be creative: to use thoughts, ideas, art, and fashion to stand up and participate in improving their own lives – and the lives of their family, friends and neighbours. All proceeds go directly into our projects. Not just a percentage of the profits, not just some of the money – every dime goes back to the community.”

The Obakki Foundation goes into communities and orphanages in places like Cameroon with ideas intended to empower women and children to create art and fashion to sell through Obakki’s channels back at home. During this series of visits, the Obakki Foundation:

• finds out what the communities and orphanages need;
• inspires the women and children in the creative process and has them create during the visit;
• turns the women and children’s art into a sellable commodity, the proceeds of which goes directly back into the project and to the communities and orphanages;
• returns to visit, documents how the money has been spent, finds out future needs, shares the successes with the communities and orphanages, and develops new creative projects.

The Dussault Inc. team had the opportunity to join the Obakki Foundation on a return trip to Cameroon. Our crew helped them to document their work and tell their story further, and Mashiah Vaughn worked with the women and children, inspiring them in creativity.

We learned of how the Foundation has helped to give children with next to nothing, a place to sleep, an education, medical care, and most of all hope and empowerment, as it is through their art and creativity that the Foundation is raising money for their community.  It is this hope, empowerment and team building that will help to build a promising future for both the women and the children.

“The Obakki Foundation doesn’t just raise money and give it blindly. It sets sail and anchors in the region. We studied the people we are helping, getting to know them personally, visit them frequently, establish long-term relationships and hold them accountable for the donations they will be receiving. As we entered the valley, the work Treana, Ed and all the humanitarian volunteers who accompanied them was apparent from village to village. For the past fifteen years, they’ve been recognized in the region for having raised the funds to bring electricity and water wells, empowering the people and saving many lives.” ~ Ziad Touma 

This admiration goes both ways.  We are very proud to share the words of the Obakki Foundation with regards to our Series Director and Executive Producer, Ziad Touma:

“Three adjectives to describe Ziad? A….MA…ZING. That’s it – he is amazing. Ziad was our director on the trip, working on a TV show with Mashiah. I was very hesitant bringing a director and camera into Africa. I’ve spent years protecting the people and communities we work within, so when Ziad and I started talking about the possibilities of them filming our trip, I was very apprehensive. After traveling with him, I can honestly say I would do it again – any time, any place.

What I liked most about Ziad was the enormous respect he gave to every person he met. He is intelligent, talented, global, educated and successful director – with NO attitude. He was an unbelievable traveler: never complaining, always willing to participate and his creativity poured over onto all of us. Aside from his main film”

You can find some of the children’s creativity from an earlier visit to Cameroon here and see what Obakki did with their stories here. You might want to think about giving one of these creative pieces as a gift this holiday, as it gives in more ways than one.

For more on Dussault Inc.’s trip to Cameroon, tune in to Citytv Video to watch the episode and check out Director Ziad Touma’s diary and photos from the trip.

“Our reason for traveling to Cameroon and visiting these remote villages is our profound belief that every human being on this planet, young or old, boy or girl, deserves at least the very basic needs to sustain themselves with food, clean water, shelter, proper health conditions and a better education. That is why we were there.” ~ Ziad Touma