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We Are Not Powerless

We Are Not Powerless tells the story of what can happen when a community refuses to give in, and instead works together for hope, love, and education.

In 2016, Muzafar Ali and his wife Nagina escaped the Taliban in Afghanistan. They found themselves living in Indonesia as refugees when Australia "stopped the boats." Determined to do something, they started a small two room school, the Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre, which soon became the hub of a community and the most successful refugee-led initiative in the world.

They started with a few notebooks and pens and against the advice of the UNHCR. Now, the students are obtaining school leaving certificates and entering universities around the world. Alumni from the school have spoken at the United Nations and become doctors, teachers and lawyers, and they are returning to support the schools in Indonesia where many went to school for the first time in their lives.

This powerful, emotional narrative, anchored by Muzafar and Nagina's love story, takes the audience inside the life of a refugee in a way that has never been captured before. Reflecting and comparing ten years of footage – over which time a student becomes a teacher, or a teacher becomes an international advocate – We Are Not Powerless illustrates how a small act of defiance grew around the world, became a beacon for other refugees, and proved that there are alternative solutions to the global migration crisis.

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