Mr. Kharas’ work encompasses the world. 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 around the world and has been to over 130 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, including in such prestigious publications as The New Yorker (US), MacLean’s (Canada), the Independent (England), The Globe and Mail (Canada), De Telegraaf (Netherlands), Washington Times (US), The Nation (Thailand), The Times of India (India), ABC News (US), the Ottawa Citizen (Canada), the Toronto Star (Canada), Taipei Times (Taiwan), The Citizen (South Africa), Screen Africa and in wire stories by United Press International, Reuters and Associated Press and others. 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
Current examples of his work are the acclaimed animated series of 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, Six Within; a documentary on an unaccompanied child refugee claimant in Canada, Child Without A Country; the first animated pre-school series in Arabic, Nan and Lili; a short film Zacchaeus, a personal journey to celebrate a black man becoming President of the US; 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 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 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. 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 prevelent countries have received the campaign. Tapes and DVDs are sent out free of charge upon request by Mr. Kharas to any broadcaster, NGO, hospital, doctor, teacher or other user.
Six Within is a series of six documentaries that offer personal, intimate portraits of those affected by the child protection system in Canada. Mr. Kharas is associated with three of the six documentaries. The series will tell the stories of six compelling individuals in order to raise awareness of the 76,000 children growing up in government care and the many other at-risk children in Canada.
Child Without A Country is an hour-long documentary highlighting an unaccompanied child refugee claimant in Canada.
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.
Zacchaeus is a personal journey that takes the viewer from Canada to Kenya to Chicago on the night of Barack Obama\'s win of the US presidency, a pivotal moment in world history.
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. Mr. Kharas sits on Algonquin College’s Animation Advisory Committee. He frequently meets with students and has lectured on mass communications to students at UCLA, Johns Hopkins, Kingston (England), Concordia, Ottawa, Algonquin, Thiel, Durban, Stellenbosch, Witwatersrand and Mandela universities/colleges and to several schools in every age group ranging geographically from his own city of Ottawa to townships in Africa. Mr. Kharas has also spoken to several children’s festivals of film and television.
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. Recently, Mr. Kharas gave the Commencement Speech at the Graduation Ceremony of the American InterContinental University in London, England on June 4, 2010.
In April, 2008 and in January, 2005 he gave a Press Conference at the United Nations in New York on using mass communications for malaria prevention and HIV/AIDS prevention respectively, which generated media attention around the world.
He has spoken recently at the International Emmy Television Conference, the Alliance for Malaria Prevention, Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University, World Summit on Media for Children, Ottawa Animation Festival, One World Festival, Commonwealth Broadcasting Association\'s General Conference, Museum of Television and Radio, MIP TV (Cannes), Banff Television Festival, United Nations Global Media AIDS Initiative, and the Chicago International Children\'s Film Festival.
Among other conferences he has chaired or spoken to are the XV International AIDS Conference, Bangkok AIDS Film Festival, Vue D’Afrique in Montreal, NATPE in Las Vegas, Sithengi in South Africa, Banff TV Festival, FICCI Conference on Media in India, One World Film Festival in Ottawa, Harvard University’s International Development Conference, Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), World Television Conference in Los Angeles, General Conference of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA) in Gibraltar and in Nassau, Pan Asia Satellite & Television Conference in Singapore, ASEAN Television Conference in Kuala Lumpur, MIP ASIA and CASBAA in Hong Kong.
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 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 several scholarships and awards throughout his studies. He received five scholarships at the graduate level and four scholarships at the under-graduate level.
Mr. Kharas was a US 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 several 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.
Current as of July 6, 2010
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