HOME IS WHERE YOU FIND IT premieres at SilverDocs and Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York with Alcides Soares, our young director from Mozambique, in attendance with both his mentors. He is poetic and inspiring.

The BYkids gala benefit – hosted by TODAY show anchor, Natalie Morales – is a resounding success and raises over $55,000 toward the third BYkids film to be done in Colombia by a displaced young girl. 200 guests see the Mozambique film and enjoy a festive and global evening in lower Manhattan. Photos at www.bykids.org.

BYkids Film Mentor, Dirk Simon, returns to India to continue helping Namgyal, the exiled King of Tibet, tell his incredible story. Namgyal narrates MY COUNTRY IS TIBET while they are together and final production begins.

New Board Chair and Film Mentor Neal Baer arranges to have Alcides Soares spend three weeks studying English before his voice-over work in the Henry Mancini Sound Studio at NBC/Universal in Los Angeles. 18-year-old Alcides, the star filmmaker of BYkids: MOZAMBIQUE, will narrate his own 27-minute film. Upon completion of the voice-over and final touches in the editing room, the film will start the film festival circuit.

The BYkids Junior Committee, led by 18-year-old Committee Chair Sophie Bressler, begins planning for the second BYkids annual benefit to be held at the Scholastic Auditorium in Soho, NYC on May 16th. The festive celebration will be the venue for the premiere of BYkids: Mozambique by 18-year-old Alcides Soares of Maputo, Mozambique.

Top web designers from Razorfish chose BYkids as the nonprofit venture to feature in an “Experiencing Design” course taught to undergraduates at MIT. BYkids Founder and Executive Director, Holly Carter, travels to MIT to present the BYkids story as a real-time case study and works with the students on new design ideas for BYkids web portals. Nadya Direkova of Razorfish reflects, “Working with a ‘client’ is a very important experience for a designer, especially working for a meaningful cause such as BYkids; this was a great learning experience for the students! Thank you for coming in person, for presenting your cause with an open mind and passion.”

BYkids receives its first major foundation grant for $101,000 from the Ford Foundation. A significant gesture of confidence from this prestigious foundation, the Ford Foundation’s generous commitment to BYkids will bring meaningful institutional support to near- and mid-range development strategies.

BYkids: MOZAMBIQUE (the first film being done by 16-year-old Alcides Soares, who was orphaned by AIDS last year) starts editing through the generosity of NBC/Universal. The editor, Michael Schweitzer, won the best editing award last year at Sundance for the film, Nanking. Film Mentor, Neal Baer, has arranged for Alcides to come to L.A. in August to do an intensive English program so he can narrate his own film. He will also work closely with the editor in the editing room. 

Sophie Bressler, a Chappaqua 17-year-old with a passion for BYkids, organizes an amazing fundraiser on May 10 that raises over $50,000. Held at the Times Center in Manhattan, Ford Models donate their time to model fashions from leading designers including Milly, Nili Lotan and Keiko. Mrz Smith performs, as does Morley, who movingly sings with a young friend from South Africa who was orphaned by AIDS. They perform after the Mozambique trailer is shown. Sophie will chair the 2009 Benefit and a newly formed Junior Board of Directors – Kids Supporting Kids. See photos of the May 10 Benefit »

BYkids makes history at the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences/NY, where BYkids presents its program to a group of Academy members. Our new Board Chair and Film Mentor, Neal Baer, brings the cast of Law and Order: SVU. Film Mentor, Dirk Simon, is there and the exiled King of Tibet connects by speaker phone for a rare, inside view of how this nation and it’s exiled leaders are dealing with life.