End of the Year Report

WSO is wrapping up 2008 with the satisfaction of accomplishing our goal for the year.

About a year ago this month, Justin Edwards, WSO’s Founder and Director, began synthesizing ideas for what would eventually become the World Story Organization.

By March of 2008 it became clear that establishing WSO as a non-profit, educational organization was the way to proceed. WSO filed for tax-exempt status in April, with Edwards moving to Kenya in hopes of tapping into the budding film industry in East Africa.

WSO’s goal for the calendar year was to find interested parties in Kenya that would be willing to partner with WSO in bringing film production and storytelling education to prospective students.

We have proudly established contacts within Daystar University, the Kenya Film Commission, and Hot Sun Foundation, with plans for collaboration in the near future. We hope to hold formal screenwriting and production workshops in the spring of 2009.

It is WSO’s hope that these workshops will serve as pilot courses for further implementation of the curriculum we have been developing specifically for Kenyan film students.

To begin the new year, WSO will be meeting with a film professor from the University of Southern California who has been working with the Hot Sun Foundation in Kibera. We hope to discuss curriculum building techniques and the viability of starting a film school in the Kibera slums with the Hot Sun Foundation.

We hope your year wraps up well, and we look forward to continued success in 2009!