A short summary of our project

We hope to produce a documentary and tell the story of The Hair Project and Oasis India who work in some of the most challenging areas of Mumbai. We hope for this film to raise awareness of a topic that is not often covered in mainstream media and that the film will open eyes to the issues surrounding human trafficking in Mumbai and across the world. 

The Hair Project aims to provide vocational training, specifically in hairdressing and styling, to some of the most disadvantaged girls and young women in India. This includes both those who are trafficked and are forced into prostitution and those who are living in the worst and most deprived slums in India.

Oasis India has for the last 25 years had a team who have been regularly visiting the brothels in Mumbai to provide counselling and emotional support to the victims. This is a very valuable activity. However, following such counselling and in the absence of appropriate vocational skills, many will slip back to their trade as this is the only way they can survive. The founders of The Hair Project (and their partners BA1 Hair) have worked with Oasis India to design and implement vocational training which can give the girls and young women a positive future. 

The Hair Project and Oasis India have financed and built a small training room in one of Oasis India’s offices in Mumbai. This is set up to have the feel of a hair salon to get the women used to working in such an environment.

The Hair Project’s UK partner (BA1 Hair in Bath) has taken the lead on technical training, the standards required and the methods for teaching the skills. Through tutorials and classes the MumBa1 Hair project has developed, in conjunction with its partners, an appropriate training scheme to allow the girls to secure their first job in the outside world.

Our hopes for this film is to raise awareness of the issues surrounding human trafficking in Mumbai and how Oasis and The Hair Project help and make a difference in the community and especially to the lives of the young children affected. We hope the films will also help to raise money for the charity directly so that they can continue and expand the charity to help more young disadvantaged young people around India.

Who are We?

Tom - The reason I am getting involved in this project is to create a film that will help to spread awareness and promote the work that The Hair Project and Oasis India carry out in Mumbai. I hope that the film will document the effects that the training programme has on people and their lifestyle and also how learning a new skill can enable them to hopefully secure their first job in the outside world. After traveling to Mumbai last year I met many inspiring people who worked with the charities and despite adversity still wanted to make a positive difference to their communities. I hope through the means of film I am able to tell the inspiring story of these individuals and their lives. 

Billy- My reason for getting involved in this project is because I believe it will make a huge difference and bring awareness to something that is not widely known as an issue within India. Currently, the sex trafficking industry in the country is one of huge proportions, and affects women from ages as young as eight. The charity we are working with do everything within their power to help these targeted women, but they have very limited funding. I am hoping this documentary can help raise awareness and money for the ‘MumBa1 Hair Project’.

Ollie- The ambition for the creative work that I hope to make, is to provide a platform to enable groups and individuals to express their untold stories which need to be seen and heard. For this project specifically we hope to capture and share the lives of those affected by human trafficking in Mumbai. After visiting Mumbai in July 2019, working alongside MumBa1 Hair and Oasis India we were able to see some of their efforts which are helping combat the destructive impact that the sex trafficking has in the city. We are hoping to support their efforts as well as raise as much awareness as possible through this documentary.

our story

Since working alongside one another, we have begun to recognise the influence that film holds in today's modern, connected world. With this we believe that we have a responsibility to make sure that at the centre of our creative projects holds meaningful messages of compassion and kindness. Using the resources we have as filmmakers to spread a positive message of hope and raise awareness of issues possibly not covered by mainstream media.

As a group we first met Eddie (A barber who cut's hair for the homeless) during our second semester at University. Our project was to create a documentary and as a four we decided that we wanted our film to have meaning and tell the story of someone inspiring. Hearing Eddie’s story we really wanted to focus on how hairdressing changed his life for the better and how he now uses it as a platform to help others in need. During the making of ‘Message of Hope’ documentary we were introduced to Zac and Phil from BA1. They really helped us in making the documentary, with Phil agreeing to be interviewed and while also allowing us to film freely in their salon. Since making the documentary last year we stayed in close contact with Eddie, Phil and Zac.

From that we heard about the work that Zac and Phil had been doing with the charity Oasis in India and had the idea of creating a documentary about the whole project along with the side project of 'MumBa1' Hair. We were amazed to hear about the project and how it had been helping change so many lives already in such a short space of time. As a group we would love to tell the story of how Oasis started along with the work that they carry out across India. 

Where will the money go?

• Trip costs - flights, transport, equipment, accommodation, insurance, food.
• Viewing event post trip and edit.
• Anything left will be donated to the charity we are working with to make this documentary!

Rewards

• A credit in the film, Merchandise and other amazing things that will benefit you and the charity!
• Every donation will be entered into a draw to win one of our ten sets of 2x tickets to the screening event!

Images and video

Find us here

Instagram:  @messageofhopemumbai for all updates of the project during all elements of production!

Help us succeed!

• We need as many people as possible to be talking about our project. Everywhere you can think of!
• You don't need to give money to help us succeed! Please share this project with anyone you think would support us – on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, by email, telephone, in a chat over the fence or on your blog.
• In fact, share it with everyone you know as we think it's a great idea, and the more people who know about it, the more likely we are to make this work out brilliantly.
• And we know we said you don't need to give money to help us, but we'd love it if you did! Please sponsor us and help make this happen.