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Rwanda
Pre-Jury

A pre-jury of more than 30 local science education and science communication professionals from the participating countries are closely involved in the selection of the films.

In the region Sub-Sahara Africa the pre-jury in 2019 consisted of the following members:

Josiane Ishimwe

Rwanda

Josiane studied Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering at the University of Rwanda campus of science and technology. She now works at the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village as science center coordinator. Here, she works hand-in-hand with science center trainers to create a fun and educational hands-on curriculum for students with the hope that they will love science and technology and consider careers in this field. She also coordinated the science film festival in Kigali in 2018.

Science Center Coordinator, Agahozo Shalom Youth Village

Michel K. Zongo

Burkina Faso

Michel is a director, cameraman and scriptwriter. He has trained at the Burkina Faso National Cinematography Center, the Burkina Faso National Television, and Cinédoc Films, a production company in France. From 2003 to 2008, he was responsible for the Interactive Debate-Cinema at Cinomade, an association based in Burkina Faso whose objective is to create and distribute tools to increase awareness of social issues through cinema.

After having worked as cameraman and assistant director for several films he wrote and directed his first documentary “Sibi, l’âme du violon” produced by Les Films du Djabadjah. “Ti-tiimou (Nos sols)” followed this, produced by Cinomade. In 2010, he co-founded the firm Diam Production, a structure for documentary film production, that is co-producing his full-length documentary film “Espoir-Voyage” with Cinédoc Films.

Director, Cameraman and Scriptwriter

Gashoki Gitonga

Kenya

Gashoki is a science communicator with a background in Applied Computer Science (Bsc). He joined The Discovery Centre in 2018. He is involved in various sections of the centre, which aims to expand the joy of science to Nairobi children, including coding classes, content creation and quality assurance of the Smart Maker toys brand. He is motivated by the challenge of impacting the lives of children who have a love for science.

Science Communicator

Kombada Mhopjeni

Namibia

Kombada served as the National Programme Officer for Natural Sciences at UNESCO from 2017 to 2018. She is has worked various positions at the Geological Survey of Namibia since 2004 in and now heads the Geo-Information unit. Her main duties include managing access to geoscience data and information. Since 2007, she has participated in several science outreach activities including the International Year of Planet Earth, NAMSCI and most recently, the Science Week.

Geo-Information Unit

Thandi Nqubelani

South Africa

Thandi is a Natural History Educator at Iziko Museums of South Africa; with decades of experience developing and implementing educational programmes within intricacies of diverse learners, special needs learners, teachers, tourists, general public etc. Developing strong relationships is the foundation of everything she does in her job. She holds a Diploma in Education (specialising in Maths and Science) and a Diploma in Human Resources and Training Management.

Natural History Educator at Iziko Museums of South Africa

Althea Jarvis

South Africa

Althea is a television producer / director with more than 20 years of experience in broadcasting. She is also a former educator and very passionate about the use of film, television and digital content as an empowerment and educational tool. In her capacity as Commissioning Editor at the SABC she is the Editor of some of South Africa’s most beloved TV shows.

The Daily Youth Drama “Skeem Saam” has an average viewership of more than 6 million viewers daily and won the prestigious South African Film and Television Award (SAFTA) for most Popular Drama in 2016. In 2017, the Doci-Magazine show, “100% Youth” won the SAFTA for Best Youth Programme. She is currently doing her Master’s degree in Media Studies at AFDA film School and is also the Project Lead for the SABC Animation Strategy.

Television Producer / Director