Smiley Charity Film Awards
We were thrilled to be a finalist in the Smiley Charity Film Awards 2025!!
We were quite overwhelmed that so many of you supported us and our wonderful film ‘We hug them’ – Creating brighter futures for children with disabilities in Kenya, which we entered into the Smiley Charity Film Awards 2025.
There was an immense number of entries so to become shortlisted and get our film in front of the judges for their scoring, we had to do well in the public voting stage and it is absolutely thanks to you that we were selected as a finalist! So many wonderful charities entered amazing worthy films, so it meant the world to receive this message from the Smiley Charity Film Awards team: “To be a finalist is a great testament to the enthusiasm of your supporters and the effectiveness of your work. Well done!”
By the end of the public voting window, the Smiley Charity Film Awards campaign to amplify the films entered had generated over 50 million views – that is tremendous! Whether we received an award or not, we were already winners: if our film had even 0.1% of the views, that is 50,000 people who had now learnt about our work and our impact!
The judges then had the huge task of scoring the films and deciding the winners in each category. We were so proud to hit the red-carpet awards ceremony on the 20th March 2025 for the Rafiki Thabo Foundation team!
And what a wonderful evening it was! It was everything that an awards ceremony should be, but it was more than that. The Smiley Charity Film Awards truly celebrate charities, small and large, and all who work for them. It was inspiring to listen to Smiley Charity Film Awards’ CEO Nicolas Loufrani talking about why he created the awards and why the evening was about celebrating not just the films but the organisations, charities and individuals behind them who ‘assure us that a positive future is not just a possibility but a reality’.
Congratulations to the many worthy winning films and to the teams behind them! We may not have received an award for ‘We Hug Them’ but we felt honoured to be celebrated!
If you haven’t yet watched our film we would love you to do so now, here is the link: https://smileycharityfilmawards.com/films/we-hug-them
The Smiley Charity Film Awards is the world’s largest cause-based film campaign. Since its launch 7 years ago the Smiley Film Awards has generated an astounding 350 million film impressions, with over 2.7million viewers tuning in to their 2024 virtual event. Being shortlisted as a finalist had the power to launch us onto a huge global platform – which in turn can help us achieve so much more for the children and young people who rely on our support.
We want to take the opportunity to extend our sincere gratitude to Munjiri Videos for our incredibly impactful film, to our patrons Harry Baker and Amar Latif for introducing the film, to our Disability Programme Manager in Kenya, Daina Kibera for presenting, reaching out to and connecting with the staff, parents and scholars you will meet in ‘We hug them’! We are incredibly grateful to everyone at our disability partner organisations Autism Society of Kenya and Dadashi Special Children Centre and to our graduate and Dadashi volunteer Ayiesa Ohese for being part of our story.
Just like our small Rafiki Thabo family, this is the result of great teamwork with a shared passion for enabling access to education for children and young people of all abilities.
