Metropolis TV and Hivos: Independent People Videos · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

Metropolis TV is a Hivos and VPRO TV project based in the Netherlands, which brings together film-makers and civil video journalists from all over the world to record and transmit different aspects of life and culture in their homeland. Following, a few videos selected and played on the Netherlands TV station VPRO forWorld Humanist Day around a specific subject: to recognize individuals who live under the ideal of independence and being in control of their own lives.
This first video is about Sopiato, a young woman in Kenya who is currently an outcast because she decided to refuse going under the knife for female genital cutting. Correspondent Makena visits her and get the story:
This next video shows Bercam, a 15 year old Kurdish activist in Turkey who stands up for the rights or the Kurdish minority, supporting their freedom, equality,  brotherhood and freedom of religion. He explains how Kurdish people in Turkey are rejected for speaking or listening to music in their language.
This video shows Jiang, a Chinese activist who tries to raise awareness regarding pollution and the environment. He tells of how he saw a documentary on a 100 year old turtle who died from eating plastic bags: he sold his restaurant and started on his tour around the country to protest contamination. He goes from town to town telling people to take care of the environment. Some people believe he is crazy for doing this, others believe that it is a worthy cause; in spite of his loneliness, he continues to travel around, putting environmental protection before his own wants and needs.
Watch more of their selected videos for the World Humanism Day on the Metropolis TV site . Their videos are separated by monthly episodes composed of videos from around the world responding to a specific theme.  You can also collaborate with them: They have a way for people to produce videos to appear on their site,  if they are featured or it makes it to the TV programming, you will get paid for your work.