Music video promotes empowering women

Andrew Chudley recently channelled his inner music star to help empower women around the world.

Chudley, a student at Collége Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau in Transcona, was one of eight Manitoba high school students who worked together to write, produce, and record the song Unbreakable for International Development Week.

The song is about the empowerment of women and girls, which was the theme of International Development Week that ran from Feb. 5 to 11.

The students also created a music video to accompany the song, which was premiered at the Legislative Building on Feb. 8 and seen by Premier Greg Selinger.

Chudley said working on the song gave him the opportunity to continue to highlight human rights issues.
"It was the human rights and music aspect of it that drew me in. Those are the two main things I do," said Chudley, a Grade 12 student at the school.

"I’m really involved with UNESCO here at the school."

It took the students a day to write and record the song, and film the accompanying video. A process that helped them understand the plight women face around the world.

"We like to think of the video as a sign of strength, because we learned about women around the world not being treated properly," Chudley said.

Sumeep Bath, public relations co-ordinator for the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation who worked with the students on the video, said the organization wanted to have a mixture of high school students working on the project.

"We wanted to get a representation of both male and female high school students because we wanted to make it clear that the empowerment of women and girls is everyone’s concern," he said.

Bath said International Development Week highlights Canadians who are making a difference in the world, and it’s important to start with young students.

"It all starts when you’re young. At MCIC we like to focus on young people," he said.

"We want to create a network of active global citizens, and that starts with young people. If you start young you create a society of people who care about these things."

Chudley said people don’t always realize that the smallest gesture can make a world of difference.

"It’s real world problems, you may not think it but small actions can make a difference," he said.

"If everyone would get into that mindset we can make a change."

The music video can be viewed at http://mcic.ca/makingadifference-2012/video/unbreakable-music-video.

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adrian.alleyne@canstarnews.com