Tunisian Interactors win 2018 Interact Video Awards
When members of the Interact Club of Tunis Inner City, Tunisia, set out to make a video about their club, they focused on the many projects that have kept club members busy and engaged throughout their city.
“The key message was to show that a group of teenagers can have an impact on their community,” says Fatma Choura, the club’s adviser and member of the Rotary Club of Radès, Tunisia. “They wanted to encourage other young people to become active and serve their communities.”
The two-minute video was selected as best in the 2018 Interact Video Awards, earning the club $1,000 to spend on a future project. Videos from the Interact Clubs of Alexandria East Champions, Egypt; San Salvador Noroeste, El Salvador; and Colegio de Calumpit, Bulacan, Philippines, were named runners-up. A video from the Interact Club of A.V.P. Trust Public School (CBSE) Gandhinagar, Tamil Nadu, India, was voted the 2018 fan favorite in a social media poll. All awardees received a letter from the Rotary International president and have their videos posted on social media.
Choura says the Tunis Inner City club decided to film at the Olympic Stadium in Radès because it’s an impressive backdrop and is located in the city of their sponsor club. The video’s main character, a young woman, passes groups of Interactors who are acting out the club’s five most meaningful projects. The film builds to its main message: “Through enjoying the good and overcoming the bad, we grew together, and we got closer until we became a family — a family aiming for higher goals and achievements and looking forward to making the world a better place.”
Choura says the Interact club is like a family. The members spend a lot of time together, and through team-building and social activities, they’ve developed mutual respect for each other. The Interactors also benefit from the mentoring and support they receive from their sponsor Rotary club.
“We follow them closely because they are, as teens, in a critical phase of their development,” Choura says. “We see each other on a regular basis and we work together, growing as a family.”
10th anniversary
The Interact Video Awards celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2018, with a record 198 videos submitted from 35 countries. In its first year, 32 videos from nine countries were submitted. The growing popularity of the awards has inspired more Interactors to promote how Interact instills leadership skills and helps them make a difference in their communities.
Kyle Gomes, a former member of the Interact Club of Hugh Boyd Secondary School, British Columbia, Canada, which earned best video in 2012 and 2014, says, “Winning the Interact Video Awards reinforced the idea that even though we were a small, newer club, our contributions mattered.”
“I think the video selected in 2012 was probably the most impactful for us,” adds Gomes, now a professional photographer and cinematographer. “We were a brand new Interact club, and these were the very first large-scale projects we were taking on. This was for sure instrumental in motivating everyone.”
Here are the winners for the past 10 years:
2017
Interact Club of Mark R. Isfeld Secondary School, British Columbia, Canada: The Interact Club of Mark R. Isfeld regularly volunteers in their community and has undertaken several projects to support education and promote health in Honduras. Their video sought to demonstrate how they are a driven group of students who wish to make a positive impact worldwide.
2016
Interact Club of Constanta, Romania: With the theme “If Interactors Ruled the World,” members of the Interact Club of Constanta share their ideas for making the world a better place.
2015
Interact Clubs of Aquinas, Central, Holmen, Logan, and West Salem high schools, Wisconsin, USA: Interact clubs near La Crosse come together with their community to create iFeed, a one-day food drive to feed the hungry at home and around the world.
2014
Interact Club of Hugh Boyd Secondary School, British Columbia, Canada: In the video, “Our Best Day in Interact,” club members show how they’re changing lives and improving communities around the world — from rebuilding an orphanage in South Africa to raising funds for polio eradication.
2013
Interact Club of Kathmandu Mid-Town, Nepal: In “Seeds of Change,” members of the Interact Club of Kathmandu Mid-Town show how selling herbs from their club’s garden helped pay for hygiene kits distributed to underserved children.
2012
Interact Club of Hugh Boyd Secondary School, British Columbia, Canada: Members of the Hugh Boyd Secondary School Interact club show that a small group of people can still make a significant change in the world.
2011
Interact Club of the Episcopal School of Knoxville, Tennessee, USA: “Change 4 Change” chronicles the efforts of the Episcopal School of Knoxville’s Interact club to help eradicate polio. Using their creativity and management and leadership skills, students complete a schoolwide project to raise funds and awareness to support Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign.
2010
Interact Club of Syosset High School, New York, USA: The Syosset High School Interact club describes how they raised $42,000 for Gift of Life International to improve the lives of two children with life-threatening heart condition in El Salvador.
2009
Interact Club of South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice Communities in Schools, South Carolina, USA: In a juvenile correctional facility in South Carolina, members of this Interact club use the leadership skills they’ve learned while they’ve been detained to help others. “It has given us a chance to give back and to repair at least some of the harm we have caused,” says a member. “We’re becoming givers, instead of takers.”