Firdaus Kharas has been referred to in the media as a “world renowned” director and producer of animation, documentaries, television series and film. His current work focuses on innovative solutions to global issues by creating various types of media to effect societal and individual behavioural change through mass communications spanning across many cultures and countries to better the human condition.
In 1995 Mr. Kharas founded Chocolate Moose Media, a hybrid social enterprise to undertake both for-profit and non-profit media activities. Mr. Kharas describes himself as a social innovator focusing on some of the world\'s toughest issues.
Mr. Kharas creates innovative media specifically to create society-level and individual behavior change across the globe via a process he calls Culture Shift. Please see www.cultureshift.tv for more information about his media that positively influences audiences’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviours.
Mr. Kharas creates global communications programs to confront and overcome the many fault-lines that separate human beings: languages and cultures; religions and ethnicities; traditions and histories; stereotypes and stigmas; racism and prejudices; hatreds and fears.
Among other topics his media have dealt with are: governance: universal values, human rights, children\'s rights; literacy promotion; education: early childhood education, middle children\'s education, street children, children at risk, training in mass communications; migration: refugees, child refugees; health: dementia, suicide; disease prevention: HIV/AIDS prevention, malaria prevention; Vitamin A deficiency; violence: rape within families, rape in a situation of conflict, various forms of sexual abuse, violence against children, using culture as a justification for violence, perceived rights to commit violence within families, gender-related violence; culture: the preservation of cultures especially in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
An article on Mr. Kharas in a university publication said "individuals can make a difference.... He is living testament to it". Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, captured Mr. Kharas\' philosophy well in a headline: “I’m just trying to make a small contribution”.
His main avenues are short- and long-form animation, documentaries, short films and television series. In particular, Mr. Kharas has created, directed and produced 2,395 animated behavior change communications shorts in 6 series, used in over 150 countries, after adaptation into over 90 languages with a potential reach of over 5.75 billion people in their own language. The campaigns are on children\'s rights, universal values, HIV/AIDS prevention, malaria prevention and domestic violence prevention. Mr. Kharas assembles and directs volunteers to create these campaigns. Mr. Kharas pays for all costs for producing, marketing and distributing these campaigns, which are sent free of charge to any requester anywhere in the world.
In long-form television series, Mr. Kharas has produced: the first pre-school animated series in Arabic; the first animated series based on African culture; the first animated pre-school series in Holland; the first English-language daily hour-long drama in Asia and other pioneering series seen across many countries. In documentaries, Mr. Kharas has produced several documentaries related to human rights, in particular on children\'s rights. He recently completed two behaviour change films related to dementia and a documentary on a child refugee claimant. He is currrently completing a feature-length documentary on caregiving to people with dementia.
Mr. Kharas has received several awards personally, including the United Nations Peace Medal from the UN Secretary-General, the medal of the World Federation of UN Associations, an Honorary Doctorate and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from his alma mater, an Honorary Fellowship from a university in London, the Global Development Award and the ReelWorld Trailblazer award.
His work in mass communications has garnered over 70 international awards in just the last few years. These include the prestigious Peabody Award, CINE Golden Eagle, Telly, Platinum Remi, Chris, Hugo, Golden Reel, Davey, Gold World Medal in New York, Grand Festival Award (Berkeley), Accolade, Silver Globe and First Prize at the Chicago International Children\'s Festival. Mr. Kharas\' work has been strongly publicly supported by Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Mr. Kharas is currently the subject of a documentary being made by an independent production company which will be released in the fall of 2011.
Over 500 articles have been written in the international media about his work. His work has been profiled in various media, from The New Yorker magazine to Rush Limbaugh on his radio show. Both graduate and under-graduate students in several universities have written theses and essays on his work. Academics have written refereed articles on various aspects on his work, especially on his methodology of linguistic adaptations and his ability to create mass communication across cultural boundaries. Mr. Kharas is mentioned in several books and publications including university-level textbooks with a print-run of over 50,000 copies. His work is in the permanent collection of several museums including the world\'s largest, the Smithsonian.