Together with the sold out film screenings of 'Sandtracks' and 'You Can't Get There From Here', art and photography sales from our 'Endless Exile' exhibiiton, handicrafts sales and other donations, we were delighted to have surpassed our fundraising goal of £2000 for Desert Voicebox!

It was so inspiring and encouraging for us to see so many people come together for the film screenings and to show their support for and solidarity with the Saharawi people.

Sandtracks is an intimate look into Sandblast founder Danielle Smith’s mission to bring the unknown struggle of the Saharawi people for self-determination to wider attention. Featuring fascinating interviews with Danielle and Saharawi refugees, filmmaker Carolina Graterol tells this story about how people from such different cultures find common ground and unity.

In You Can't Get There From Here, filmmakers Daniel Petkoff and Peter Shields set out to cross the Sahara desert on a mission to deliver a shipment of prosthetic limbs to the amputee unit at the Banjul hospital in Gambia. The film tells the story of a journey that starts from Plymouth and takes the filmmakers across Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania to reach The Gambia.

While travelling through Western Sahara they meet underground Saharawi activists living under Moroccan occupation. This encounter provides a chilling insight into the little-known story of the indigenous Saharawi people, who for decades have endured repression and systematic human rights abuses in the pursuit of their self-determination rights and independence dreams.