Hah! When I received notification of this a year ago, without even reading the contents and watching the promo, I laughed. Why? Well, if you’re familiar with NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations – a broad term that is often used to describe usually non-profit organizations that are in business – whether operational or advocacy – often to further the political or social goals of their members), you’ll be familiar with the many criticisms leveled against them, despite their best intentions. 

I won’t expound here, but the fact that there’s an organization called the NGO Monitor, which does exactly what its title says, should indicate something. Click HERE to read up on criticism of NGOs and challenges to their legitimacy.

This upcoming Kenya-set comedy series is titled The Samaritans, and it revolves around the Kenyan field office of a fictional NGO that does a whole lot of nothing!!

The project is from Kenya-based production company Xeinium, who successfully raised over $10,000 via Kickstarter last year (when I first learned about the series) to go into production on the series, which, based on the 2 preview clips below, looks like it’s going for a similar vibe as the American TV series The Office.

The filmmakers took the project to DISCOP AFRICA last year – the TV and Film conference in South Africa, where the below interview with Hussein Kurji of Xeinium (with Smart Monkey TV) was recorded. He talks about the impetus for the project, their plans for it, and more.

A year later, episodes of The Samaritans are in the can, and the production team has release 2 preview clips from which are embedded below. 

But first, here’s the pitch for the series that I received last year, while financing was sought via Kickstarter. Just some background, if you’re unfamiliar (ignore the promo footage within the pitch, because that’s not actual footage from the series. For that, watch the preview clips underneath the pitch video). No ETA yet on when and where exactly the series will debut:

And here’s Hussein Kurji chatting with Smart Monkey TV about the series:

And finally, here are the 2 preview clips:

Samaritans EP01 Clip from Xeinium Productions on Vimeo.

Samaritans EP02 Clip from Xeinium Productions on Vimeo.