Film for
Change.
300+ community film screenings. 20,000 lives touched. 14,000 girls and women reached. In partnership with UNICEF, ADB, and the Government of Punjab, White Rice used the proven power of cinema and facilitated storytelling to shift how communities in Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur manage water and waste, building climate resilience from the ground up.
Film Production, Facilitation Design & Behaviour Change Architecture
White Rice designed and delivered the entire Film for Change programme under DREAMS-I, a joint initiative of UNICEF, the Asian Development Bank, and the Government of Punjab to build climate resilience across urban Punjab. Our mandate was to produce cinema-quality short films featuring recognisable public figures, design a structured facilitation methodology for converting emotional engagement into behaviour change, train frontline social mobilisers, and scale across 50 schools in two cities in under three months. The programme reached 20,000 children, youth, and community members, with a deliberate equity focus ensuring 14,000 girls and women were at the centre of the effort.
Key Outcomes
The Challenge
Urban Punjab faces a mounting environmental crisis: water scarcity, waste mismanagement, climate stress, and cascading public health consequences. Infrastructure alone cannot solve these problems. In Rawalpindi, taps run and coolers leak and hoses flood the street, not because people don't care, but because the habit has never been confronted with something that felt personal. In Bahawalpur, wet and dry waste commingles in bins and on streets because no one has made the alternative feel real, achievable, or important.
UNICEF and its partners under the DREAMS-I programme understood that the largest infrastructure investment in water and waste systems would fall short of its potential without a parallel investment in behaviour. Long-term climate resilience begins at home, in the decisions made at the tap, at the dustbin, and in the conversations families have around these daily acts.
Infrastructure alone cannot solve these problems. Long-term resilience depends on everyday behaviours, how water is used, how waste is managed, and how communities engage with municipal systems.
The Strategy
30 years of global evidence shows that Entertainment-Education works. Stories bypass resistance, create emotional identification, and model the behaviours we want communities to adopt. White Rice designed a five-stage theory of change: from screening to sustained action.
The Intervention
In under three months, White Rice delivered 300+ film screenings across 50 schools in Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur, each a structured event with its own arc: welcome, film, discussion, pledging, visual reminder placement, and real-time documentation. The primary audience was children aged 11–16, complemented by parents, women's groups, teachers, and community leaders. Two-thirds of screenings took place in schools, with a deliberate emphasis on girls' schools. One-third engaged community settings, reaching the women who manage water and waste in their homes daily.
Impact
Stories change minds.
Minds change behaviours.
Behaviours change communities.
The Film for Change initiative proved that engaging children and communities through facilitated storytelling is a powerful, scalable approach for driving behaviour change in urban service contexts. The experience offers a replicable, adaptable model that can be embedded within schools, community programmes, and municipal initiatives across Punjab and beyond.
