The Project is based on the creation of a short documentary that tells the story of how three friends, who are convinced about the enormous power of voluntary co-operation, changed the lives of the children in a small village in the south of Madagascar.

Their trip, their difficulties, their effort and the consequent happiness on the faces of the village people provide a perfect opportunity to help convince the West that the solution to many of problems affecting world communities today are not solely in the hands of the politicians, but also in the public conscience, our hearts and our ideas.

It all started when two friends decided to start a project to help a small community called Andoharotsy and created the organization Sonríe África.

A well-known Madagascan musician called KILEMA decided to join together and help these two friends. KILEMA, through his music and songs offers a small piece of Madagascar to people all over the world. The great contribution of KILEMA in this project together with his appearance in the documentary is an honor for all of those who have been working on this dream.

The village where the documentary will be made is mainly agricultural and has no electricity supply. About 200 children live there and they walk 10km a day to go to the nearest school. When they get home, these youngsters have to help with the home and the land. When they finish these chores, the sun has gone down which makes going back to their studies and their homework practically impossible. Sometimes they may have small kerosene lamps, but these aren’t safe and can cause fires and intoxication due to inhaling fumes, as well as being too expensive to run for most.

Our three friends introduced 200 solar lamps into the village so that the children could continue with their studies and to generally make life easier for other villagers.

These simple lamps only weigh 113 grams, they illuminate an area of 14m2 and they are 100% effective when it comes to facilitating the family unit with the possibility of continuing housework after dark.

The documentary

This documentary is not intended as a journalistic exercise, nor an amazing piece of art work, its only objective is to encourage everyone who sees it to start small voluntary community projects of one form or another.

The technical and creative parts of the documentary will be done by Barographic.
It is expected to last about 25 minutes and will be recorded in Full HD 16:9.

With simple equipment, with limited technical means, but with lots of illusion and energy we will transmit the experiences and feelings we lived through to all those who see the documentary on their screens.

So as not to lose any of the details of;

the natural beauty of the area,

the emotions of the participants

the reality of the participants

the photography will be of special interest, and used to truthfully convey each moment and each emotion as it occurs.

In the documentary we will show what life is like for families during the long dark Malagasy nights, we’ll show how these 3 friends manage to bring light into their homes and the great changes in everyday life brought about for the inhabitants of Andoharotsy, thanks to these little lights.

What will your contributions be used for:

a large part will go towards the costs of the trip and moving the material to Andoharotsy. It is a long and expensive journey due to the distance, remoteness and the difficult access to the area.

The transport of the lamps has been financed by voluntary co-operation organized by the NGO Sonrie Africa.

Lastly, part of the money will go towards the costs of recording, edition, realization and other work associated with the recording of the documentary.

What will you get back from your collaboration?

When you make your donation you will automatically be converted into one of our micro –producers, for only 10 euros you’ll see your name in the final-credits and you will be able to see the documentary on line privately.

As you would imagine, as your contribution increases in value we offer more in return, for instance; specially edited DVD’s, the projects symbolic mini-lamps, local hand-made objects/ articles and many other things that we have prepared for all those who help us make this dream a reality.

Anticipated calender of events

The recording will be made during the second two weeks of November, and the post production will take about a month and a half. We hope to have it all finished and ready for its premier by January 2016.

It will be at this moment when we will do all that we can to distribute the documentary as far and wide as possible.

+ Info

For more information, or if you would prefer to support us in any other way, you can contact us on

Página oficial del proyecto
Facebook Page de Sonríe África
Twitter de Sonríe África

Many small people, in small places, doing small things can change the world.