My daughters used to complain about having to get up a 5 a.m. to attend a high school that was two miles down the street.
Compare their first world complaints to those of the children in the West African country of Sierra Leone who have to trek and survive a brutal 9-mile trail to school daily. One way. Facing danger at every turn. That’s 18 miles in total.
David&Goliath has now partnered with the nonprofit Shine On Sierra Leone, an organization dedicated to building new schools for children, to create a dramatic new interactive pro-bono campaign that is focused on the 9-mile walk.
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The new website, 9milescroll.com, mimics, conveys and contextualizes the unimaginable journey that these children take in order to get an education. Dirt paths are lined with deadly snakes, monsoons rage in 100-degree heat, drinking water is scarce, abandoned diamond mines, malaria-ridden water and rampant sexual predators dot the landscape.
As the user embarks on their own 9-mile scroll, from the village to the school, they experience what the children go through every day, over the same three- to five-hour duration it takes the kids.
“We have so much to be thankful for in the US,” says David Angelo, Founder & Chairman of D&G. “When I think about the kids in Sierra Leone who, under some of the worst conditions, walk 9 miles each way for an education, I am both inspired and humbled.”
The journey of the scroll brought back vivid memories for Sierra Leonean designer, Awa Kamara, who now resides in Austria. “9milescroll.com is so powerful… it made me cry,” he explains. “I personally forgot about all those lonely, long and scary walks!”
Through a combination of the website, OOH posters, billboards and an Instagram initiative featuring influencers that include Zoe Kravitz, Rosario Dawson, Nura Afia, Sammy Wilk, Cree Summer, and Saul Williams, the campaign seeks to drive donations in order to raise enough money to build another school closer to the children’s homes.
“There are children in Sierra Leone who put more mileage on their feet than we do on our cars daily,” says Greg Buri, Creative Director, David&Goliath. “By partnering with Shine On Sierra Leone, our hope is that 9milescroll.com will give people a new appreciation for just how far children go for the opportunity to learn and support their journey.”
Tiffany Persons, who founded Shine On Sierra Leone, shared Buri’s opinion. “In Sierra Leone, these long and, many times, dangerous walks are the norm for every student living in the rural regions of Sierra Leone. Although the distance varies from student to student, one thing remains the same: the thirst for education is powerful and fuels them to walk whatever the distance for the opportunity to learn!”
CREDITS
Agency: David&Goliath, LA
Founder & Chairman: David Angelo
Chief Creative Officer: Bobby Pearce
Creative Director/Copywriter: Greg Buri
Creative Director/Art Director: Raul Garcia
Senior Designer: Katherine Ahn
Associate Creative Directors: Bernice Chao, Chris Mead
Group Account Director: Stacia Parseghian
Associate Head of Strategy: Kristen Knape
Account Supervisor: Lauren Gluck
Senior Project Manager: Nita Smith
Digital Analytics Manager: Shaun Jacobs
Senior Social Media Strategist: Natalie Gomez
Junior Social Media Strategist: Noelle Suarez
Director of Digital Production: Peter Bassett
Senior Digital Producer: Noah Luger
Senior Developer: Ben Smith
User Experience Design: John Randall
Developer: Mariano Echegoyen
Sr Digital Designer: Tim Hagan
Digital Designer: Meagan Steincamp
Mix Facility: Lime Studios
Audio Engineer: Peter Lapinski
Executive Producer: Susie Boyajan
Editorial House: Spinach LA
Editor: Juan Pablo Digenio
Managing Director: Adam Bright
Executive Producer: Jonathan Carpio