A contributor to the betterment of Sudan: Hisham Elzubair -- at TEDxKhartoum

The company Almawja, founded by Hisham Elzubair, is at the heart of a movement; to bring about new and elevated internal and external images of Sudan. It produces professional world-class media products, ranging from documentaries, animation series, music videos, TV series, children's books and short films, independently produced and backed by sponsorship from various organizations.

Hi.

My name is Hisham Elzubair.

I'll give you a brief about myself.

I lived in various countries like I said,

and I moved to Sudan
about two years ago.

After about one year of being in Sudan

I felt very frustrated seeing this country
so rich with so many things,

yet, things used to be standing still.

So I thought, let me put my talents
and the talents of others,

and let's do something positive
for the country.

Keep your mind that finding people
is relatively easy.

We began the hunt looking
for media specialists,

and creators in the various fields.

The process first began by a portion
of people I knew personally.

And they knew people,
who were also talented,

and utilizing social networks,

we were able to locate
a lot more people,

and those people knew people
in their circles 

were able to reffer them to us.

About 80% of those people
who we approached,

joined the project on voluntary basis.

They didn't join for the money,

they joined for what the spirit
of the project is all about:

for the betterment of Sudan.

That's the actual glue
that bonds all of us together.

Now, in terms of: Why does it work?

Or, how does it work?

There are number of systems
we impelment to help us to ensure this.

First, each with their own setup.

We don't have capital,
we don't have money,

we don't have an office.

So, everyone uses their own equipment
at home to produce the work.

We also utilize communication.
Communication is key:

phones, SMS, chats, e-mails,

every form of communication
available as possible is used.

We also host specialized meetings,

meetings for scenario guys,
meetings for the website guys,

meetings for the marketing guys
to get the work coordinated.

Most of the work is done in solitude,

at one's home, and then they email
the other members

or relevant members of the project
that work has been done.

We also have a virtual office,

we have shared calendars,
shared to-do lists,

shared files, shared contact sheets,

so we are able to integrate
the work together.

We operate on total transparency,

and we believe
that transparency itself is a vehicle

that enables this work to proceed further.

We also operate on a shared goal
driven coordination system.

It's the goal of the whole project
that actually makes us work together.

Now, why [does] it work?

A lot of people ask me this question.

Well, like I said, the overall goal
the betterment of Sudan,

to improve Sudan's image,
is a goal that we share together.

So, it's something that moves
and drives us together.

It also provides an opportunity
to create a very high quality

in something we all aspire to.

Sudan is very --

you don't see this very often in Sudan,
so it's something that moves us.

It's an addition to one's CV.

We believe the work we do
in Almawja is so valuable

that it can be a good addition
to one's CV.

It also provides opportunity for one
to work with complementary talents,

to produce a more complete
media product or unit.

It provides the opportunity for one
to start his own project,

or her own project,

and we lend a hand and share
to make sure

that the project is realized,
supervised for project ownership.

Finally, revenue generation.

Money is the least of the priorities,

for money [goes] for marketing

[and] exceptional costs before
we actually enjoy the fruits.

Now, we do suffer a lot of setbacks.

This is natural, I guess.

One of the setbacks we suffer

is the priorities given to the actual jobs,

so the amount of time allocated to Almawja
is significantly reduced.

That's something [that]
has a quite impact on us.

Also social obligations,
specially in Sudan,

I'm sure you guys are familiar,

takes a quite a toll also on the time
allocate to Almawja.

Anther issue is general laziness,

and time culture issues in Sudan,

so the time allocated to Almawja
again is reduced further.

There are other issues
we experience, such as

lack of equipment.

Again, we don't have a capital,

so the equipment we have
is rather minimal.

We hope this will change in the future.

Also hardware issues,

for the hardware issue we can't solve it
as easy as corporation can.

So this is an issue
that sets us back quite a bit.

Finally, we learn as we go.

So, sometimes we make mistakes,

and we have to go back
and fix the mistakes.

This sets us back, but as well

it gives us the strength
to move forward in a better fashion.

In terms of what we do as a group,

we work on documentaries.

One of them is the ancient
history of Sudan,

which we're very proud of,
just completed.

We're also working on 3D cartoon series,

such as:
(Arabic) Yawmiyat Balad,

it's a cartoon that's in progress right now,

should be released in about a year.

We're also engaged in photo campaigns,

where we collect various
artistic photos of Sudan,

by various photographers,
so we can show the world.

We're hoping to start
in training enthusiasts

in different various specialties
very soon

to provide more recruits.

Other parts we're working on
include music video clips.

We're working on a video clip right now,

for a Sudanese band,
a song that is really beautiful.

We're working on TV series,
that should be coming soon.

And we're also working on short films.

We're soon to expand to creating movies,

but we want to start slow and surely,

we'll make sure that we do the right way,

we don't move too fast.

The shared principles that we have,

are the cohesive glue
that binds us altogether.

One of the things is shifting perception,

we want to shift the perception of Sudan
to a more positive and more real image

than what is out there
in the media right now.

We want to be a vehicle
of overall promotion of art and culture,

by promoting all talents
and creativity in the country

as something we all believe in.

We want to create a platform for ourselves
and others to showcase our talents.

Sudan is full of talents.
I believe they need to be showcased.

We believe entertainment brings relief,

and relief is an important component
for change to take place,

which we're really after.

We are also [in] education,
particularly in terms of raising awareness,

we want to raise awareness
of what is negative around and about us,

as well as of what
we should be proud of

through our documentaries for instance.

We would like to create a market.

We believe that Sudan
has a lot of talents

that can provide all the country's
media needs,

at comparative pricing and a better quality
that worths outsource to.

We would like to expand,
we a have open board philosophy,

the more the merrier.

And finally, we'd like to be an inspiration.

We let this model to be used by others,

where you can create something great,
out of absolutely nothing.

Thank you.

(Applause)