About nayanaya trust
Who we are
nayanaya trust is a non-profit organisation founded in 2013. It works with young women from marginalised communities, supporting them to develop leadership skills and creative confidence through film and storytelling. The organisation provides training, mentorship, and hands-on production experience that helps participants grow personally and professionally, while also creating pathways into the creative industries.
Our approach
nayanaya trust uses a collaborative, participatory model. Young people are not just participants but active creators, shaping their own stories from development through to production. Workshops combine creative practice with structured support, including safety, ethics, and skills development. The process is designed to build confidence, independence, and ownership of storytelling.
Vision
To support young people to express themselves confidently through storytelling and creative practice, and to use these skills to contribute to positive social change and advance their careers in film and other disciplines.
Mission
To create opportunities for young women to develop skills, confidence, and voice through film, and to use storytelling as a tool for social transformation.
Objectives
To establish nayanaya trust as a leading organisation delivering impactful, innovative programmes that support young women in storytelling, leadership, and creative industries.
Goals
To provide structured training, mentorship, and production opportunities that enable young women to develop their voices, build confidence, and participate meaningfully in their communities and society at large.
What we believe
We believe in the young women being given a platform and we believe storytelling is a powerful tool for visibility and change. When young people tell their own stories, they challenge exclusion and reshape how communities understand themselves. This is central to advancing equality and inclusion.
Our origins
What began as an informal response to the need of young women needing mentorship nayanaya trust developed into a structured storytelling initiative focused on young women from underserved communities.
As a non-profit organisation, the trust supports socially driven storytelling that is often outside commercial production systems. Its model combines mentorship with hands-on filmmaking, enabling participants to learn by doing while developing their own creative voice in front of and behind the camera. Through this process, more than twenty short films have been produced, with filmmakers retaining ownership of their work.
Under the leadership of Xoliswa Sithole, the trust has also curated platforms such as the UNiTE to End Violence Against Women Film Festival (2011–2012) and the yanaya gender film and dialogue festival (2015–present). These initiatives have expanded opportunities for emerging storytellers to share their work, build practice, and grow into mentors for the next generation.
Who we work with
The trust works through partnerships with civil society, government, non-governmental organizations and private sector organisations, as well as individual practitioners.
These collaborations provide resources, mentorship, and technical support for programmes. Films created through the process are shared through screenings, events, and digital platforms to encourage dialogue and public engagement.