December 23, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Hollywood actors and actresses that visit certain countries during their various shooting schedules often get to see the insufficient facilities that are available to the locals of the area, thereby inciting an urge in them to be of some help in whatever way they can.

One such prominent actress to have extended her hand to help the local artists in the country of Rwanda is American actress Cassandra Freeman. The actress is keen to see the quality improvement in the arts and performing arts sectors in the country.

It was in November 2009, when the 32 year old actress had been to the country to shoot the movie Kinyarwanda (a film based on Genocide which was a part of the Sundance film festival in the US) and she had met the girls of the camp GLOW or the Girls Leading Our World. It was during that visit that the actress had got inspired and she had held quite a few workshops for acting and women empowerment activities.

The Cassandra Art Project is a nonprofit project set up in US by the actress as she was quite appalled by the transformation that had occurred while she was working with the girls there.

Her mission is to help the disadvantaged children of the world to get introduced to art and her motive is to start from Rwanda. She further plans to invest more on youth activities and communities in the country. Her efforts are on to see if she can extend any help to the various organizations and to further the cause of growth for the artists by exploring new opportunities for the local artists.

The actress has her main focus in the visual arts and dance forms and has plans to invite some very distinguished American artists in order to bring about a change in the quality of performances in the local artists, thereby raising the bar of competency in these areas.

According to reports, a Peace Corps Rwanda Public Health Volunteer Rachael Gold Brown has gone on to say that the American actresss initiative will be like a catalyst for the empowerment and leadership of young women in the area. She further added that when invited by her Ms. Freeman was very enthusiastic to volunteer her time to help the Volunteer group in working with the girls in the camp.

-- Niky Sharma / Sampurn Wire