Fundacion Concordia 21

Mission: We founded NomadsHRC in 2018 with the aim of bridging the gap between the needs and aspirations of Sahrawi human rights defenders, filmmakers and cultural activists and the vast international network of funders and organizations that can provide the necessary resources, support and visibility.

We are guided by the Sahrawis' conviction that preserving and transmitting their culture is essential to their survival as a people and work with a sense of urgency knowing that Sahrawi culture faces the twin threats of long-term occupation and exile. In supporting a marginalized, underrepresented indigenous people, we believe that film and culture are powerful tools with the potential of reaching beyond the political and diplomatic channels to connect globally with civil society and key decision-makers. Culture, we believe, can help to bring peace to Western Sahara.

Our main objectives are:

To support cultural initiatives including the Western Sahara International Film Festival (FiSahara) that offer critical access to entertainment, culture, training and leisure to Sahrawi refugees in the camps in Algeria, including the support of Sahrawi filmmaking through the film school, international film grants and workshops

To connect Sahrawis from the camps and from the occupied territory with filmmakers, cultural activists, artists, journalists, human rights defenders, climate justice activists and others from all over the world to produce cultural exchanges and connections, with the aim of raising international awareness on the conflict and building solidarity for the people of Western Sahara

To support the preservation and transmission of Sahrawi culture through intergenerational encounters and filmmaking, focusing in particular on the role that women cultural practitioners play in keeping Sahrawi culture and identity alive.

To support Sahrawi at-risk human rights defenders and media activists under occupation through workshops and projects that give visibility to their work and situation.

Since 2003, before our organization was founded, our team has worked at FiSahara, the Western Sahara International Film Festival, which takes place in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Southwestern Algeria. We support the EFA Abidin Kaid Saleh Audiovisual School in the camps and organize screenings and discussions on Western Sahara around the world through our vast international network, including the Human Rights Film Network's festivals.

FiSahara has spawned a film school, a mobile cinema and a production hub, inspiring youth to create a new art form: Sahrawi cinematography. Sahrawi culture, practiced and communicated orally for hundreds of years, is preserved and transmitted to younger generations through this new powerful tool. Inter-generational encounters between filmmakers and their elders have infused their artistic direction and screenplays with symbolism born out of their study of Sahrawi traditions, history and beliefs. Films portraying historical events and contemporary stories are made, watched and debated among the community. They often broach taboo subjects, opening up new spaces for self-reflection and critical discussion. FiSahara's broad tent encompasses poetry, music, theater, visual arts, storytelling and other traditional practices, fusing traditional Sahrawi culture with new technologies and addressing issues including the climate crisis, colonialism, food sovereignty and social justice.

We have held 18 editions of FiSahara in the refugee camps, as well as several editions in Madrid, Spain, that give echo and visibility to stories from Western Sahara.

We also co-produce Jaimitna, a mobile storytelling art project created by a collective of Sahrawi women human rights activists, artists and journalists that explores the spatial realities of Sahrawi people in the context of colonialism, occupation and exile. It is composed of a Sahrawi jaima (tent) whose interior is stitched with melfhas (dresses) belonging to women human rights defenders from the occupied Western Sahara. Each has a QR code leading to their online stories of peaceful resistance. Jaimitna has been exhibited at FiSahara and other international festivals as well as at the Un Human Rights Council, helping to shed light on the plight of Sahrawi women under occupation.

Current work:

• To Resist is to Win: 4th Edition of FiSahara Madrid, November of 2025
• Jaimitna exhibit at the UN Human Rights Council (June) and at Culturescapes Festival in Basel, Switzerland (October/November) 2025
• Western Sahara themed screenings and roundtables in partner festivals (year-round)
• The 19th edition of FiSahara (expected dates: April 27-May 3rd, 2026, Sahrawi refugee camps, Algeria)

Walking to our Land, FiSahara's 19th edition, explores the Right of Return juxtaposed against the denial of this universal human right in the form of settler colonialism and occupation, land grabbing and other forms of enforced displacement and dispossession. Audiences will take a deep dive into land sovereignty through the cinema of Western Sahara, Palestine, Brazil, Chagos and other territories, combined with discussions with activists and filmmakers on this theme and a Master Class on how these films have achieved social impact.

• Workshop for Sahrawi human rights defenders under occupation, May of 2026, Sahrawi refugee camps,
• Film Tuiza workshop will hold sessions in the refugee camps and online, that, combined with mentoring, will offer knowledge, skills and access to talented young Sahrawis to identify funding, networks and other opportunities, and to use film as an effective tool to educate on human rights. It will build on the collective knowledge and creativity of Sahrawis and a network of international filmmakers, activists and impact experts. Sahrawi participants will include students from the film school, cultural practitioners and organizers, photographers, storytellers, educators, artists, human rights, land and water defenders. Collectives such as the Naja Cultural Center that focuses of women's cultural contributions, Cocina por el cambio (Cooking for Change), a culinary school fighting for food sovereignty whose motto is "Food is Memory" and Saba Collective, a group of young Sahrawi artists, scientists and farmers who merge art with agriculture to recover the ancient cultural practices of Western Sahara, will participate.
• Continued support for the film school and all of its activities.
• Year-round film screenings and discussions at festivals and other events around the world, with a focus on Western sahara.

Additional future activities:

• 2-4 annual workshops for Sahrawi human rights defenders from the occupied Western Sahara, with at least two dedicated only to women and Gender Based Violence;

• Year-round mentorship, support and training for Sahrawi human rights defenders in writing human rights reports on Western Sahara as well as developing communications strategies and tools to gain maximum impact from the reports: to increase the number and the quality of human rights reports, and to support the continuation of at risk defenders

• Additional support for Sahrawi human rights defenders to build their organizational capacity inside the occupied territory, including the training of trainers;

• With Sahrawi women at its helm, a world tour of Jaimitna to festivals and other events that will raise awareness about the plight of Sahrawi WHRD, and the production of more stories, films and other supporting materials for the project;

• Four editions of FiSahara in the refugee camps that will include film screenings, discussions, high-profile guests, workshops and cultural celebrations, featuring human rights defenders from Western Sahara and all over the world;

• Support for trainings at the EFA Abidin Kaid Saleh Audiovisual School and the production and screenings of locally made films.

• Year round screenings of films on Western Sahara in the refugee camps and around the world.