Mr. Kharas’ work encompasses the world. On his projects he works with people in dozens of countries. He has been instrumental in strengthening the media industries in Holland, India, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa, creating original television series in each of those countries and training thousands of media professionals on his projects.
He travels frequently and extensively and has been to 140 countries in every major region of the world, from the cold of the High Artic to the heat of the Sahara Desert. He has conducted field research for his projects on behavior change communications in dozens of countries, from talking to mass rape victims to children\'s rights activists to torture survivors to doctors in small villages coping with epidemics. He has been to animation studios in the Far East, war zones in Central America, refugee camps in South-East Asia, and many hospitals, community health centres, non-governmental organizations, and youth centres in Europe, Africa and Asia.
He has participated in Canadian trade missions to several countries led by the Prime Minister and the Minister of International Trade and has discussed broadcasting and content policies with Ministers and senior government officials in many countries. He was instrumental in pushing for film and television co-production treaties between Canada and South Africa, and Canada and Singapore. He currently heads a committee of the Indo-Canadian Chamber of Commerce seeking increased co-productions between Canada and India.
Further information about his work can be found on the Internet in the many articles that have been written about his work in using mass communications to better the human condition. His campaigns can be found in multiple languages on the Internet, including on the UN\'s YouTube Channel. He has also appeared on dozens of television shows and radio programs in every continent.
Mr. Kharas began creating media in 1995. He established television production companies in Canada and in Asia (in partnership with the Royal Family of Malaysia, the News Corporation and UTV of India).
Current Work
Mr. Kharas is currently working on: an animated campaign to prevent domestic violence throughout the world entitled No Excuses; two behaviour change videos for caregivers to people with dementia, No Thanks, We\'re Fine; a feature-length documentary on dementia, Conversations About Dementia; and a documentary on an unaccompanied child refugee claimant, A Child Without A Country: Pedro.
Current examples of his recent work include the acclaimed animated series of animated shorts or Public Service Announcements (PSAs) to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, The Three Amigos; a series of animated PSAs to prevent malaria infection, Buzz and Bite; a series of individual documentaries on Canadian children at risk; the first animated pre-school series in Arabic, Nan and Lili; the first animated series based on African culture, Magic Cellar; and the early learning pre-school children’s series Honk, Toot and Swo-Swoosh. All these media are currently in production and/or in distribution.
The No Excuses campaign is a series of animated spots targeted directly at the abuser to prevent domestic violence and abuse. Successfully launched recently at the United Nations, the series is on-line in multiple languages and available for download and use by any user anywhere in the world. Tapes and DVDs are sent out free of charge upon request by Mr. Kharas. The goals of the campaign are to be seen in 100 countries by a billion people.
No Thanks, We\'re Fine are two short behaviour change videos in English and French designed to get caregivers of people with dementia to change their behaviour and seek assistance and support. Conversations About Dementia is a feature-length documetary of people talking about taking care of their loved ones who have dementia.
A Child Without A Country: Pedro is a hour-long documentary on a child refugee claimant in Canada as he goes through the refugee determination system.
The Three Amigos is a series of purposely varied animated spots that use humour to counter the spread of HIV/AIDS. The series, directed and produced by Mr. Kharas, was adapted under his supervision into 45 languages, thereby enabling a potential reach of over 5.5 billion people or approximately 80% of the world’s population in their own language. The Three Amigos has been used extensively in a wide variety of countries, ranging from liberal democracies to conservative theocracies, from countries in southern Africa where AIDS is rampant, to countries preventing an AIDS crisis in Asia and Eastern Europe. Broadcasters have donated millions of dollars worth of free air time to air the series, in some cases up to 20 times a day. Thousands of health clinics, hospitals, non-governmental organizations and universities across the world in over 150 countries use the series.
The series has received 30 international awards including a prestigious Peabody Award and hundreds of articles in many languages have been written on its creation and impact. Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu is the principal supporter who has called the series in an open letter “a powerful communicating tool” and has written "in creating The Three Amigos PSA\'s (you) have made an outstanding contribution to the campaign against HIV infection in providing material that can be easily understood by most people irrespective of language or culture". Hundreds of testimonials from around the world have been received from every walk of life, from powerful government officials to AIDS educators to ordinary people who\'s behaviour has been influenced by the series.
Tapes and DVDs are sent out free of charge upon request by Mr. Kharas to any broadcaster, NGO, hospital, doctor, teacher or other user.
Buzz and Bite is an extensive series of animated spots to combat malaria infection. So far, 30 animated spots have been created in 22 languages, with an additional 15 dialects for one country, Madagascar. When completed in 40 languages, the campaign will consist of 1,400 animated and audio PSAs, making the series one of the world\'s largest PSA campaigns on any subject. The series, created, produced and directed by Mr. Kharas, features two humourous animated anopheles mosquitoes to stress the importance of using bed-nets to prevent malaria infection. The series was launched by Mr. Kharas in Ottawa and in New York (at the United Nations) in advance of World Malaria Day, April 25, 2008. The series has the strong support of Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Over half of the world\'s malaria prevalent countries are using the campaign in some way. Tapes and DVDs are sent out free of charge upon request by Mr. Kharas to any broadcaster, NGO, hospital, doctor, teacher or other user.
Nan and Lili is the world\'s first animated pre-school series in Arabic. Currently on air throughout the Middle East. A highly educational series that is designed to be the first television program a young child sees. Winner of a CINE Golden Eagle and three Telly Awards.
Magic Cellar is the first animated series ever created on African culture, faithfully and beautifully replicating local folktales to reflect the rich story-telling tradition of Africa. Magic Cellar is unique in many ways as it is the first animated series based on African culture and a series that seeks to preserve the tradition of African story-telling. For the first time, African children see themselves reflected in animation, listen to characters that sound like them and watch stories that they are familiar with.
Directed and produced by Mr. Kharas, a co-production with South Africa, the series has received 29 international awards and 13 other international recognitions and has been showcased in many festivals and competitions.
Honk, Toot and Swo-swoosh is a pre-school educational series produced and co-written by Mr. Kharas. Designed to be the first series ever seen on television by a child, the animated series featuring a car, a boat and a helicopter encourages appropriate learning and instills desirable behaviour in young children.
Originally created without any financial support from a broadcaster, the series has been sold in over 100 countries with an estimated audience of 200 million children on channels like Disney, BabyTV, Nickelodeon, M-NET in Africa and Hungama TV in India.
Most of Mr. Kharas\' projects have a strong component of training. Over the course of the last 16 years, Mr. Kharas has built capacities by training thousands of media professionals in Asia and Africa in particular, directly and indirectly through his projects. Mr. Kharas has personally conducted training in workshops and seminars up to ten weeks long and he has ensured that all of his projects train new people in the media industry free of charge.
Mr. Kharas is very interested in developing young people, which has been a constant theme through-out his career. He frequently meets with students and has lectured on mass communications to students all over the world. Mr. Kharas has also spoken to several children’s festivals of film and television. Mr. Kharas has been on Algonquin College’s Animation Advisory Committee.
Mr. Kharas organized and led a multi-faceted program to train South Africans in producing, writing and animating. This capacity-building training should assist Africa in creating a vibrant long-form animation industry capable of world-class story-telling. Mr. Kharas organized for a Canadian institution of higher education, Algonquin College, to issue diplomas to the African students.
Mr. Kharas often speaks at global events and makes dozens of public speeches annually. In the recent past, Mr. Kharas spoke at The Children\'s Media Conference in Sheffield and at Yale University, gave a TEDx talk, spoke to the Lake Geneva Innovation Society in Geneva, Switzerland and gave the Commencement Speech at the Graduation Ceremony of the American InterContinental University in London, England.
Mr. Kharas has launched three of his behaviour change communications campaigns at the United Nations. In April, 2011 he gave a press conference on preventing domestic violence and abuse to launch the No Excuses campaign. In April, 2008 and in January, 2005 he gave Press Conferences on using mass communications for malaria prevention and HIV/AIDS prevention respectively. All three launches generated media attention around the world in multiple languages.
Mr. Kharas often sits on international juries for academies and festivals. Some of his recent activities include: in 2010 Mr. Kharas headed the Animation Section Jury at the Banff Television Festival; he headed the International Jury at the 2009 Cairo International Film Festival For Children, where a retrospective of his work was shown; in 2008 and in 2007 he sat on the final selection International Jury for the International Emmy for the Children and Young People Programs category and in 2006 he sat on the regional jury for the International Emmy in the Documentaries category; in 2006/7 he was also on the jury for the Ontario Arts Council\'s grants to Established and Mid-Careers Professionals.
Mr. Kharas is a member of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (that awards the International Emmys) and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television (that awards the Genies and the Geminis).
Prior to his present work in media content, Mr. Kharas was a senior executive in the Government of Canada. From 1989 to 1994, Mr. Kharas was an Assistant Deputy Chairman of the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), the largest administrative tribunal in Canada. Mr. Kharas was one of the founding senior executives of the Board and was appointed by the Cabinet.
As head of the Refugee Backlog Sub-Division he had national responsibilities for an adjudicative process concerning 112,000 refugee claimants from 116 countries, which has been called the single largest movement of people in Canadian history. He oversaw 50 Board members making decisions on individual claims in offices from Newfoundland to British Columbia. After the clearing of the backlog of refugee claimants Mr. Kharas was appointed the Assistant Deputy Chairman in charge of the Ottawa/Atlantic Division of the Board. During his time on the IRB, Mr. Kharas also organized three national training conferences for Board members.
Prior to that appointment he was the non-partisan Policy Advisor to the Minister of Employment and Immigration of Canada, the Honourable Barbara McDougall. Mr. Kharas advised the Minister on immigration and refugee policies, practices and law and took critical decisions on individual cases seeking Ministerial intervention. He undertook a sensitive trip on behalf of the Minister to several Central American countries and assisted the Minister in shepherding two bills through Parliament that created a new refugee determination system.
For five years previously, he was the head of the staff as Executive Director of the United Nations Association in Canada (UNAC), having been appointed to the position at the age of 27.
For four years he was concurrently a member of the governing body of the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA), an international organization created by the UN General Assembly that is based in Geneva. In that capacity he attended several meetings in different countries of the world, including in Geneva, Berlin, Warsaw and New Delhi. He organized and hosted in Canada the global Plenary Assembly of WFUNA, attended by 60 countries’ delegations and opened by the President of the UN General Assembly. He represented the UNA Canada at three global Plenary Assemblies and at two regional assemblies of the World Federation.
During this period Mr. Kharas participated in several international delegations, both governmental and non-governmental. He was the Canadian representative to the Special Session of the UN General Assembly on the UN’s fortieth anniversary attended by over 80 Presidents and Prime Ministers, which the New York Times noted was the "largest gathering of world leaders in history". He was also on the Canadian delegation to the Commemoration of the Signing of the UN Charter in San Francisco.
During this period the UN Secretary-General awarded the UNAC the Peace Messenger Award.
Mr. Kharas’ main goals in policy were to educate Canadians about international issues, strengthen the public image of the United Nations and maintain public pressure for Canadian support of multilateral institutions.
To further those objectives in a period of extraordinary public activism and pressure on international issues like disarmament and development within the context of the Cold War, Mr. Kharas organized and undertook nine intensive cross-Canada media and speaking tours with several Canadian Ambassadors and a former Prime Minister of Australia, speaking to both the general public and to educational institutions about current international issues. Most tours touched every province in Canada and involved dozens of media and public appearances by Mr. Kharas and Canadian Ambassadors Stephen Lewis, Alan Beesley, Gerard Pelletier and Douglas Roche, among others.
He organized many conferences on global issues across Canada attended by leading world figures including former Heads of State, Nobel Laureates, UN Under-Secretaries-General, Ambassadors and globally renowned experts. He co-hosted the State visit to Canada of the UN Secretary-General and served as Secretary to a conference on disarmament and development attended by the Secretary-General.
Mr. Kharas served as Secretary to the prestigious Pearson Medal jury for five years, an award given each year to a prominent Canadian for his/her work in international affairs. He was also a founding and active member of an advisory committee to the government on international affairs that met regularly with the highest levels of government and diplomacy.
He organized the first three national model United Nations for over 1,000 university-level students to learn about international affairs and multilateral institutions. Mr. Kharas organized experts in international affairs such as the former President of Costa Rica and ambassadors to the UN to lead the week-long simulations.
He published over twenty widely-distributed papers and articles on international issues such as disarmament, development, international finance, and strengthening the UN system.
Mr. Kharas’ prior experience for three years involved international consulting to multinational corporations and to the governments of developing countries such as Togo on which he wrote a published book. He also wrote a widely-used manual on Canadian immigration.
Firdaus Kharas has earned degrees and certificates from seven educational institutions: American, Carleton, Harvard, Ottawa, Stanford, Thiel and Waterloo universities.
In 2010 he completed the Executive Program for Social Entrepreneurship at the Center for Social Innovation of the Graduate School of Business of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
Sponsored by the Canadian Government, he completed the Program for Senior Managers at the Kennedy School of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.
Mr. Kharas holds a Master of Arts in International Affairs from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario where his area of research was the international protection of human rights, specifically the creation of an international convention against the use of torture.
He has done additional graduate studies in International Business and in International Law at the MBA and law faculties respectively of the University of Ottawa.
He also holds a Bachelor of Arts from Thiel College in Greenville, Pennsylvania, graduating with Magna Cum Laude and Departmental Honors.
He completed the Foreign Policy Semester at American University in Washington, DC and the School of Peace Research at Waterloo University in Waterloo, Ontario.
He interned at the House of Representatives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and at the United Nations Information Center in Washington, DC.
Mr. Kharas received five scholarships at the graduate level and four scholarships at the under-graduate level.
Mr. Kharas was a United States national debating champion and student government president.
Mr. Kharas has been interested in the theatre throughout his life. He began by writing a play acted out in front of friends and family at age 8 and continued writing, acting and directing plays throughout his schooling and university.
Mr. Kharas is a Canadian. He was born in India and came to North America as a Rotary International exchange student at the age of 17.
Jasmine joined forces with multi-award winning director, producer and humanitarian Firdaus Kharas in May 2009 as Managing Director of Chocolate Moose Media to dedicate herself fully to the production of socially responsible content. With Jasmine you can talk in English, French, German, Swiss-German and Arabic, and she tries hard in Spanish and Italian.
Currently, she is working on the fully-commissioned development of a teenage drama series, Notes From Nature. The internationally-produced drama series aims to trigger, encourage and support the interest young people harbour for animal welfare and wildlife conservation and instill a healthy environmental awareness in an entertaining storyline. The 46 x 28 minute series is being written in English and Arabic.
She is also currently a producer of the multi-lingual campaign to prevent domestic violence around the world, No Excuses.
Jasmine produced her first short documentary in 2004. She then served a stint as Senior Fundraiser for Southwark TV’s Picturing Mind Festival for Mental Health Filmmakers and Photographers in London. She then joined the founding team on the very first issue of the internationally-acclaimed feature length documentary film festival in 2006, BritDoc.
Jasmine then went on to test her journalistic stride by producing 19 news features as a broadcast journalist back in Switzerland. She joined Palladio Films to start working on feature documentary Nobody is Perfect, winner of the 2009 German Film Awards.
Rather than continuing in a classic cinematographic career, Jasmine decided to jump into the interactive world and joined London-based sound direction company Somethin’Else to administer the BBC online music reviews and manage the production of the BBC Africa Beyond website. In her free time, she worked on translations, including on the documentary Bring The Noise, based on pan-African music collaboration commissioned by the British Council.
Jasmine soon became the Senior Sound Producer on seven Buzz! quiz show games for Sony’s PS2, PS3 and PSP. The series was launched in 2006 and is a global best seller.
In 2008, Jasmine became Associate Producer with the Oscar-winning independent film and animation production house, BreakThru Films UK. There she worked on animation and live action productions and managed European distribution. Some of the deals Jasmine negotiated and closed were DVD, TV and Cinema distributions and co-productions with ITV Global, ARTE, the National Film Board of Canada and Super Music/Hits For Kids in Russia. The company\'s move to early-adoptation of 3D stereoscopic content was at Jasmine\'s leadership resulting in the upcoming feature-length animated film The Flying Machine, celebrating the music and life of Chopin. She also spearheaded the development of interactive projects with a 2-year partnership with the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA).
Jasmine obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Cultural Anthropology and a Master in Cultural Studies degree from Goldsmiths College of the University of London. She also completed the two-year Diploma in Script Development from the National Film and Television School of England.
Current as of May 1, 2011
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