Why I quit my job to campaign for the Western Sahara

“Where have you flown in from?” the immigration official asks as I reach passport control. “Tindouf” I reply. His eyebrows arch. “It’s in Algeria” I explain, “In the Sahara desert”. I am dusty and somewhat dazed but with a rare clarity of purpose.

The next day at work I take my boss aside and hand her my letter of resignation. Whilst staying in refugee camp in Dakhla, I realised that the Saharawi people need their story told and that the lack of international awareness of their struggle makes their desperate situation feel even more hopeless than it already is. And so I have resolved to give up my “day job” and work with the Free Western Sahara Campaign in order to help move the story of the Sahara Film Festival and the Saharawi refugees off the culture pages of our newspapers and on to the international pages where it belongs. Thanks to this blog, and to my recent articles in New Internationalist and the Independent, now been syndicated, membership of the campaign is growing.

Next year, we hope to arrange direct flights to Tindouf from London and LA filled with actors, film-makers and musicians as well as ordinary people wanting to be part of the festival and show their solidarity with the Saharawi. In this way the festival will become even more of an international event, putting pressure on political decision-makers at the highest level and reminding the world of an otherwise forgotten conflict.

The campaign will be officially launched in the Houses of Parliament at midday on 12th June, and will be preceded by a delegation to No.10 Downing Street.