Free for educational use
Helping Children in War-Torn Countries
Year of production - 2001
Duration - 2min 25sec
Tags - beliefs, civics and citizenship, common good, communities, heroism, human rights, social justice, values, see all tags
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How to Download the Video Clip
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Premium MP4 rage_pr.mp4 (17.8MB).
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You can buy this clip on a compilation DVD.
You can buy the program this clip comes from.
Helping Children in War-Torn Countries is an excerpt from the film A Compassionate Rage (55 mins), produced in 2001.
A Compassionate Rage: Moira Kelly has run an AIDS clinic for children in Romania, been house mother at an Aboriginal mission, worked in India with Mother Teresa, nursed crack babies in the Bronx and set up schools for kids in Bosnia. She brings those in need of surgery from war zones to hospitals in the US, Canada, Ireland and Australia. Now, after three years dedicated to ill, injured and impoverished children in Albania, she’s creating a haven for young people on a farm outside Melbourne. She has been called an angel of mercy and a pain in the neck. One thing’s for certain – she won’t let anything stand in her way.
A Compassionate Rage is a Film Australia National Interest Program in association with Vue Pty Ltd. Developed with the assistance of the Australian Film Commission and Cinemedia’s Film Victoria. Produced with the assistance of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The module will help students understand and be able to apply values such as:
care and compassion; doing your best; a fair go; freedom; honesty and trustworthiness; integrity; respect; responsibility and understanding, tolerance and inclusion.
Students consider values and rights of citizens in a democratic society.
Students consider how values support social cohesion and how values can be undermined or strengthened by individual or collective action.
Students consider the role of non-government organizations in contributing to communities and their influence on government decisions.
For more information go to the Statements for National Values Education
Moira Kelly has devoted her life to the service of others. When she was eight years old she saw a documentary at school about the late Mother Theresa’s work in the slums of Calcutta. When she arrived home she told her mother that one day she would work with Mother Theresa. Many years later she did work with the nun and that is when she developed her own personal philosophy: 'Wherever there is the greatest evil, the greatest good can be achieved’.
As well as working in India, she has worked for aid agencies in Bosnia and Romania, but now she works on her own, bringing sick and injured children from war-torn countries to Australia for operations that can save lives or provide a better quality of life for severely affected children. Surgeons donate their services and the children recuperate on a farm near Kilmore in Victoria that was donated by Rotary.
Ms Kelly says that she is happy to sacrifice marriage and the chance to have her own children to help those of other people.
In 1999 she established the Children First Foundation of which she is the Executive Director.
Discuss
1. What reasons does Moira Kelly give for wanting to help children who suffer the effects of war?
2. How did the clip make you feel?
3. What scenes in the clip did you find the most moving?
4. How has Moira Kelly made a difference to the well being and health of the children she has helped?
5. Read the background information and discuss the projects Moira Kelly has been involved in over the years.
Activities
1. Divide students into groups and assign each group a non government organisation tor group of individuals that help children locally, within Australia and overseas. The students must identify the mission and values of the organisation and their core activities and list ways in which ordinary people can be involved. Suggested sources of information are
Save the Children Australia
Rotary Australia
Children First Foundation
2. Invite a speaker from a voluntary organisation or NGO to your school.
3. Students explore the extent of volunteerism in their community by brainstorming examples of voluntary activities undertaken by themselves, family or friends. About how many hours are spent per week in voluntary activities? Why do people give their time? Why do we appear to need volunteers in our community? How might social cohesion in a communuity be strengthened by volunteerism? Discuss the work and source of inspiration of Moira Kelly from the video clip.
Go to Children First Foundation
Go to AusAID