I've raised £3000 to Continue running our activities in Sierra Leone
Organised by Zac Darkes
Story
For three years, VAfrica’s mission has been to equip Sierra Leone’s youth with digital media tools that enable them to tell their own authentic stories. We do this by providing multiple platforms for young people to express themselves, as well as putting them at the forefront of creating and envisioning how these platforms serve them. With a volunteer staff of less than 10 people, we engage local youth who are interested in multimedia, in creating documentaries, capturing everyday people's stories through interviews, curating performance platforms for musicians and poets and on-the-job training in media.
The VAfrica hub in Freetown opened its doors in 2020, offering free internet access, studio training with a selection of laptops, cameras and other digital media. We have built a dedicated family in Sierra Leone, producing over 30 documentaries/shorts. Created with ongoing partnerships between artists, organisations and individuals. Sierra Leone has proved to be a complicated place to operate. Although VAfrica’s flexible approach has allowed us to overcome the challenges and continue to grow and learn together, current financial challenges leave our space and home in threat of closure.
With our rent due early September, we face a challenge of having to shut down the studio and downscale or end some of our projects. Your support and contribution will be precious for allowing continuity to our work and vision with Sierra Leonean artists. It will help us preserve services offered by our hub, while we work on our long term sustainability strategies.
These are some projects we currently run.
Wordsmiths Live - a bi weekly poetic show that highlights upcoming and established poets in Freetown, Sierra Leone. In each ten-minute episode, presenter Jestina Kargbo speaks with a different poet who shares their journey as a poet and recites some poetry. Wordsmiths Live is streamed live on our Facebook page and to date we have streamed 26 episodes.
V Acoustic Sessions - V Acoustic sessions is a weekly show that showcases the abilities of local musicians outside the studio. We identify upcoming musicians in the city and invite them to perform live at the studio. Alongside the performance, presenter Fatmata gets up close and personal with the musician about their journey. Since July 2021, we have published over 40 episodes and featured over 40 artists.
Speak Up Poetry Sessions - The Speak Up Poetry Sessions are monthly in-person paid poetry shows. Each month, we invite at least 6 poets to come and share their poetry with a live audience on stage. Proceeds from the show are shared among the performers and behind the scenes crew. Performances from the sessions are recorded and published on our social media platforms.
We also collaborate with organisations and businesses through providing platforms where they talk about their work. We also offer low-cost documentary productions for organisations looking to highlight their work. Proceeds from these projects go to logistics for the project, running costs for the studio and the crew involved.
Apart from the documentary projects, we do not charge a fee to artists who come to our platforms; we don’t charge a fee to volunteers who come to learn and curate our projects. With our current monthly running costs, we only give some volunteers a small stipend so they can get to and from the studio.
As an organisation, we understand we need funds to run our activities. We are currently working on securing permanent funding through grants and subsidies. We also recently registered a private business that undertakes private media jobs with profits being extended to VAfrica.
VAfrica
VAfrica is an open platform for Africa celebrating diversity of tribe, community and culture across the diaspora through digital media, community projects and mentoring. VAfrica’s ability to identify and train future creatives make it the most significant platform of its kind. Its inclusion of marginalised society and unwavering focus on socio-economic and cultural projects mean that their work should be highlighted strongly and not allowed to falter for lack of resources.
African nations have all the skills, resources and vision to shape global communities. With the recent changes in the world, we now have an opportunity to build a strong foundation in cities, towns and villages across Africa. VAfrica offers a unique opportunity to train all socio-economic groups and create online magazines that promote ideas and creativity. VAfrica also acts as a conduit between NGOs, grassroots organisations, businesses, government communities and individuals.
VAfrica’s vision is to create opportunities for all. A vision for peace in the world without Africa in mind is futile. So much of Africa's history has been pushed to one side and or subverted. As we travel, we grow the VAfrica platform, establishing hubs, building links and creating access to digital media/tools. We record the stories, music and poems before they are lost to tell the history the world is missing. We set up studios with live streaming access to the internet, cameras, laptops and a host of digital media.
We provide a framework for communities and individuals to learn, expand their choices in life. We create together, experimenting with new ideas and techniques, which allows free thought and deductive reasoning to complement cognitive behaviours.
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