An animated cartoon to give voice to the voiceless: a students-led project developed within the Agenda 2030 by Xhesika Nikolli

Title: An animated cartoon to bring voice to the voiceless

By: Xhesika Nikolli

The project background

We were a team with ten persons who study Business and Management at the Department of Management (University of Turin, Italy), coordinated by Margherita Paola Poto (within the project ECO_CARE) and at the end of March 2023 had to do a project about Agenda 2030 and its SDGs. We chose to represent SDG number 15 “life on earth” connected with SDG number 4 “quality education”. Our topic was to set animals free from zoos. We did an animated cartoon with the title “Bring voice to the voiceless.” It was a difficult process because we combined technology with handmade work. We did the animated cartoon not with digital pictures but with paper-drawn pictures as Walt Disney used to do many years ago. We have put subtitles in English to make it easily understandable and inclusive for deaf people and Italian subtitles for all those who don’t know English. We did a small experiment too with eight kids from 6 to 8 years old. They saw the video and they were agreeing with the idea that animals should be set free.

 Why did we choose these 2 SDGs?

We chose SDG number 15 “life on earth” because while we were discussing the topic, we went to the conclusion that animals are very vulnerable and are not well treated, especially in Zoos. No matter where the zoos are located, in developed countries or less developed ones. We linked SDG 15 with SDG 4 “quality education” to provide the younger generation with good information about the concerns that the world has today so they can be prepared and come up with great ideas and solutions when they grow up to make the world a better place to live.

Let me introduce the characters of the animated cartoon

Zach is born and raised in Fasano Zoo in Puglia. Just think about how hot becomes in summer in Puglia above 30 degrees and how impossible is to live there for the polar bears. There are people trying to help the bears and to move them to a place with better conditions, so Zach can be happier.

Pirouz- The cheetah from Iran

Cheetahs are considered to be endangered from extinction so it is supposed that is better to keep them in captivity to increase the number of their population, but this is not the case for Pirouz. His mum gave birth to three little cheetahs but didn’t recognize them and two of his brothers died because of malnutrition. This loss is the fault of incapable people who took care of them. Pirouz was taken under the supervision of a good activist who took care of him. He was a fighter towards his illness for a couple of months but unfortunately, he died on February 2023 due to a kidney malfunction. Cheetahs are disappearing just twelve of them are remaining in Iran and a few of them in South Africa.

Lucky- The elephant from the USA.

Her name was Lucky, but she was not Lucky at all. She was born in India and at the age of two she was transferred to San Antonio Zoo in the USA. Lucky has been living in a zoo for 60 years. Lucky has suffered a lot not only because she was in captivity but also because two of her friends who were ill just disappeared. She remained in captivity till she died last year.

 Conclusion

We all should cooperate to set the animals free because nobody should be happy when others are suffering. We might protest by not visiting the zoos anymore. As a group, we hope that we have raised a little awareness of this big problem, especially for the younger generation who are the future of the world.

All the photos are used in the animated cartoon they are taken and created by our team.

 Team members: Xhesika Nikolli, Simone Marandella, Saina Sattari, Edoardo Rinaldi, Erica Ollero, Cristina Maxim, Lorenzo Martinetti, Francesca Pagliero, Mahsa Omidmand, Federica Rolle.

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This post may be cited as: Xhesika Nikolli, An animated cartoon to give voice to the voiceless: a students-led project developed within the Agenda 2030 by Xhesika Nikolli, May 31, 2023.