A group of young Ethiopian filmmakers from the back streets of Addis Ababa won the Special Award at the One World Media Awards ceremony in London.

Ethiopian production company, Gem TV, is staffed by filmmakers who were recruited as young people from among the poorest communities in Addis Ababa and taught filmmaking.  Gem TV are a group of young, independent, Ethiopian filmmakers, who were recruited as a group of young people from Gemini families. Gem TV has gone on to establish itself as one of Ethiopia’s top TV production companies, making festival-winning documentaries and films for international NGOs.

The award was collected by Adanech Admassu – one of the first teenagers to join the Gem TV project when it first started 14 years ago, and now one of Ethiopia’s few female filmmakers. She took the Special Award for her film Stolen Childhood, which tells the true story of a young girl who is forced into marriage. Ms Adanech, who grew up in a one-room house in Addis Ababa, was selling snacks on the street to help her mother.

The Special Award is given to an outstanding project working on the ground in the developing world where media activity has made a real impact on people’s lives.