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.

The Women’s International Film and Television Showcase (December 4-7, 2008 in Hollywood) supports BYkids with some of the proceeds from their upcoming event. “BYkids is a brilliant idea and embraces our ethos that the determination of an individual woman to think, see and do things differently can make a difference,” says WIFTS founder, Elspeth Tavares.

Award-winning filmmaker, Dirk Simon, has been in Dharamsala, India mentoring the 16-year-old, exiled King of Tibet in the art of filmmaking. Namgyal Wangchuk, is making a film about his life. With Tibetan news on the front pages, this is a rare and intimate view.

Namgyal Wangchuk, the descendant of the Greatest King in Tibetan History, Songtsen Gampo, was born in Indian exile and has never seen the country of his forefathers. The weight of keeping a 1,400-year-old lineage alive rests on his shoulders and “it’s simply not safe for him to go,” explains his mother. Even before riots broke out in Lhasa’s streets, in order to get a visa for China and Tibet, he would have to sign a paper that identifies him as Chinese – giving up his Tibetan identity. “And that is impossible!” he says.

BYkids is named a semifinalist in the 2008 Echoing Green fellowship competition out of 1,500 applications.

Through BYkids, Alcides Soares finds his 13-year-old brother with whom he lost all contact ten years ago when their parents divorced. A BYkids camera is sent back to Mozambique so that Alcides can film their reunion – where he tells his brother about the loss of both of their parents to AIDS.

BYkids wins three major foundation grants totaling $45,000. Additional grass roots funding enables the second BYkids film – the exiled King of Tibet – a story of perseverance in the face of oppression. The 16-year-old Namgyal Wangchuk Trichen Lhagyari, the only living descendent of the first Dharma King of Tibet (617-698 AD), begins filming in February 2008 under the mentorship of award-winning filmmaker Dirk Simon.