Watch Brown – a film by volunteers Brown Niyonsaba and Justin Spray

Sign up to our newsletter

Title

First name*

Last name*

Primary email address*

Country of residence*

Please also keep me up to date by email with the latest campaigns and how I can transform and save lives.

VSO data protection and privacy declaration

If you change your mind at any time about how you want to hear from us please call us on +44 (0)20 8780 7500 or email enquiry@vsoint.org. We will never sell or swap your data and we promise to keep it safe and secure in accordance with our privacy policy.

Brown – an inspiring film by community volunteer, Brown Niyonsaba and volunteer filmmaker, Justin Spray – explores the question "what does it mean to be a Deaf woman in Rwanda?" Brown shares her own experiences and the solutions she and other VSO volunteers have created.

Being able to access sexual and reproductive health information and services should be simple for everyone, but unfortunately, that is not always the case.

In this short film, we look at how volunteers in Rwanda are training community health workers in sign language so that they can support the whole community in delivering essential information - including for Deaf people.

Brown was screened at the Women Deliver 2023 Arts and Film Festival, a special feature of the Women Deliver 2023 Conference. These films tell the stories and show the faces behind Women Deliver’s mission of improving the health, rights, and wellbeing of girls and women.

Brown Niyonsaba

Brown is a VSO youth ambassador and a community volunteer on VSO's Imbere Heza project in Rwanda, who has supported Deaf young people to access health services. Brown has mentored Deaf peer educators, community health workers and nurses about sign language and also engaged with parents and community leaders. Brown's work in communities has helped her establish forums where those with disabilities feel heard and are able to report cases of violence. In 2022 Brown won an Excellence in Leadership for Family Planning (EXCELL) Award at the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) for her contributions to family planning.

Justin Spray

Justin is a filmmaker and Chartered Psychologist with expertise in participatory filmmaking, wellbeing and conflict resolution, and applying behavioural science evidence and insights to the creation of films for social change. He specialises in co-creation of content - documentary and fiction - aiming to give a voice to the people and communities he works with. Through Justin's time volunteering with VSO, his films have given some of the most marginalised people a voice, and helped to show the impact of the work being done by VSO volunteers.

Volunteer Manisha discussing the use of cotton and sanitary pads

Support us with a donation

£10 a month could help ensure that mothers and babies get access to life-saving quality healthcare.

Chosa Mweemba

£15 a month could help train more health workers who can deliver support to survivors of gender-based violence.

National volunteers in Nepal explaining about Depo-Provera shots to local women in Gaur municipality.

Smriti Basnet

£25 a month could give girls who are at risk from child marriage and pregnancy a safe space where they can learn about their rights and feel empowered.

£10

£15

£25

£25 could help provide warm blankets for babies who are dangerously malnourished.

Dignity and scholastic kits at Nyamagenga catch-up centre, southwest Kenya.

VSO/Paul Wambugu

£50 could help provide women with hygiene kits, which includes soap, underwear and reusable sanitary towels.

Mother and child fleeing conflict in Ethiopia

£100 could help train a local health worker how to provide emergency care for women and children escaping conflict.

£25

£50

£100

The year 2024 in photos and the stories behind them

Here we share some of VSO’s iconic imagery over the past year that capture the resilience and determination of the communities and volunteers we support. It’s also an opportunity to pay tribute to some of the people behind the lens who have helped bring their stories to light.

'Here's to every volunteer' - an inspiring song from volunteer and artist Larry Dwayne

Known in the music industry as Larry Dwayne, Lawrence Ochieng is a Kenyan volunteer, hip-hop artist, and activist who uses his platform to raise awareness about climate change. Listen to his original song, 'Volunteer'.

Dev accepting his Active Citizenship Award

Meet the 2024 Volunteer Impact Award winners

Our annual Volunteer Impact Awards celebrates the incredible impact made by VSO volunteers across the world. Learn more about our four 2024 winners.