The short documentary ‘Changemakers’ by Chris Spyrou and St Euphemia College (SEC) won ‘Best Outreach Film’ at the Helsinki Education Film Festival International (HEFFI) on Sunday.
Changemakers, created by filmmaker Chris Spyrou, follows students from Sydney's SEC as they set to transform two shipping containers into libraries for two struggling communities in rural India and Lismore in rural NSW.
After the award announcement, HEFFI co-founder Ricky Carranza said that the ‘Best Outreach Film’ category is won by films “that reach out to people, whether an individual person, a particular group, a community or an entire nation.”
“‘Changemakers’ won the category because the message of the project clearly reached out to humanity,” Mr Carranza said. “The project effortlessly inspired change and showed incredible heart.”
When accepting the award, Mr Spyrou dedicated it to the students of SEC.
“This was a project led by students and this is a really unique and cool opportunity to champion all their hard work,” Mr Spyrou said.
In speaking to Greek City Times, Mr Spyrou said, "It’s an honour to be recognised by a festival dedicated to educating and empowering young people through film."
"Changemakers was more than a year-long fundraising project; it was an inspiring journey where the students of St Euphemia College expressed their unique creativity, deep sense of faith, togetherness, and desire to better the world," he added.
What is the Changemakers Project?
In 2022, the students of SEC in Sydney caught the attention of the Australian Prime Minister and the United Nations as they set to transform two shipping containers into libraries for two struggling communities.
One shipping container was delivered to an under-resourced school in rural India. Gyan Ganga is a school in the city of Sambhal without access to quality education, clean running water and electricity.
Some students travel up to three hours by foot to attend classes, with one teacher being responsible for over 200 students.
A partnership formed in February 2022 between SEC and online learning platform UpSchool.co to facilitate the transformation and delivery of the library for Gyan Ganga by the year’s end.
In March 2022, the students of SEC also sourced another 20-foot shipping container that would be transformed and delivered to Lismore South Public School. The rural area in New South Wales had been largely impacted by floods.
“Our students began to see problems around them as opportunities to make a difference,” Mr Panayotopoulos said.
“So when they heard about the floods in Lismore, they felt compelled and responsible to reach out and do something. That’s how the Library for Lismore came to fruition.”
Head of Religion at SEC, Mr Spyrou added that “students really rolled up their sleeves and immersed themselves in the project.”
“From priming and painting the container to building shelves and writing and publishing books to send to Lismore, they took ownership of their learning and showed exactly how to love thy neighbour,” Mr Spyrou said.
St Euphemia’s Head of Administration, Dr Papagelis said the project saw “student engagement and creativity” skyrocket.
“It was not uncommon to see students sacrifice their lunches and invest their time before and after school to get involved,” Dr Papagelis said.
For the remainder of the year, the students raised awareness of their dual-project and called their community to action by penning letters, curating galleries, staging performances, and partaking in an international student conference with members of the United Nations.
“Armed with the support of local and national businesses, members of Parliament and experts within our community, our students discovered that their voices and hands had the potential to bring real world change,” Mr Panayotopoulos said.
Over $30,000 was raised by their efforts, with help from major sponsors and donations by John Holland and Laing O’Rourke, Canterbury-Bankstown McDonalds, AFL Team – GWS Giants, Entertainment Park, Dulux, and JAS Transports and Sheaffe Motors.
These funds facilitated not only the delivery of both libraries by Christmas 2022, but aided the students’ 2023 project in sponsoring a school in Sierra Leonne. To date, $20,000 has been raised and delivered to that community.
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