We produced a short documentary that follows women coordinating flood mitigation and recovery across hilltop, hillside and coastal communities. The film was supported by social cutdowns, a digital photo exhibition that ties stories to World Risk Poll findings, and motion graphics that bring key data to life.
Change
Lloyd’s Register Foundation wanted to spotlight women leading community resilience in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and to connect their lived experience to World Risk Poll data. They asked us for an emotive, authentic film that could show local action while setting it in a clear global context. The project sits within LRF’s initiative to tell the human stories behind the Poll, which shows rising exposure to flood disasters in Sierra Leone and a low national resilience ranking.
Makers
We assembled a local-led team: an award-winning Sierra Leonean director and editor, a Sierra Leonean photographer, and a female animator who crafted motion graphics. The Freetown Media Centre ran creative workshops that were vital to shaping the story, and community groups FEDURP and CODOHSAPA helped connect us to participants. This partnership model, created in collaboration with the Freetown Media Centre, ensured cultural insight, trusted access and storytelling rooted in lived experience.
Impact
The film amplifies women’s leadership in a city facing floods, landslides, extreme heat and erosion, and helps shift attention toward community-driven solutions. LRF’s coverage linked the stories directly to new Poll results, highlighting that nearly a third of people in Sierra Leone report flood-related disasters in the last five years and underscoring the need for support. Local voices, including community contributors and the Mayor of Freetown, reinforced the urgency and value of community action.
“As a UK-based global charity, working with MakerChange offered us a best-of-both-worlds solution when it came to telling local stories that illustrate some of the global safety challenges we work on. MakerChange gave us the assurance and accessibility of an efficient and personable project management team based close to home, combined with a locally-led, non-extractive approach to the production itself. This made Freetown Floodfighters – a film telling the story of women on the front lines of flood resilience efforts in Sierra Leone’s capital – a far more authentic output as a result, and one that has been widely commended by our stakeholders, internally and externally. It represented exceptional value for money, compared with many other creative providers.”
Ed Morrow
Senior Campaigns Manager, Lloyd’s Register Foundation