In 2006, while working on the HBO First Look special for Warner Brothers film, Blood Diamond, both talent and crew members were staying in the capital city of Maputo, Mozambique. If you were to wander the streets in your off-hours it would’ve been hard to ignore the clusters of street vendors who spent entire days shuffling up and down the sidewalks. They were all hunting for tourists, hoping to offload a souvenir in exchange for cash. They were painters, craftsmen, salesmen, hustlers and in our eyes…mavens.

Each one of them had siblings to support, children to feed, housing to pay for and we were told they did it all while only making $40 a month.

Sympathetic, a couple of us decided to film this short piece which will introduce you to three of them. After filming, we gave them each $40.