One of our greatest accomplishments in our recent history was the successful production of the webinar series and blog called Young, Black, Femme in which we mentored between 20 to 30 filmmakers to the tell stories about their marginalisation in their community
Nayanaya Trust - Understanding Us
About Nayanaya Trust
The Nayaya Trust is a vision that inspired Xoliswa Sithole, Nayanaya’s founder to establish the Nayanaya Trust in 2013.
We believe that gender equality will be achieved not only when women and girls are equitably represented in societal institutions and spaces, but when they too get to tell the stories of their societies and nations, regardless of their social class, race, ability, sexual orientation or gender and other identities. Transformative social change is possible when women and girls are part of shaping the lenses through which humanity is perceived, and their voices become an integral part of the ecosystem of agents shaping visions of the future of our societies.
At Nayanaya, we believe in the power of stories to make visible things that would otherwise be rendered invisible. We believe in the power of stories to move, heal, empower not only the receiver but the one telling the story. Stories have the power to build communities, to build new possibilities from which a just world can be manifested. As such, we want to mobilise the power of storytelling, through film, for the empowerment of young women in a world where despite the activisms of young women across the world, societies still marginalize their voices and perspectives, especially those young women from
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We represent those who support us. Our love for the arts, and particular attention towards women within the faculties we support, make us who we are to day. Find out how you can participate.
Governance & Management
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Whilst founded in South Africa with its programmes currently rooted there, the issues Nayanaya tackles are international. Since the Beijing conference and the adoption of Sustainable Development Goals, the #Metoo and other movements, the movement for gender equality has gathered critical momentum. The UN-Women led “Generation Equality Campaign” has become an important global platform around which local and international struggles for gender equality coalesce. In this context, avenues for inter- and multi-generational struggles have expanded, with young women increasingly become a focus and a force for change. However, despite this progress, many societies and social sectors remain patriarchal and exclusionary.
South Africa is among those countries who have a long way to go in dismantling race, class, gender and other inequalities. The one arena where especially young women are under-represented is in the sphere of storytelling, particularly through film making. Nayanaya’s commitment to advancing gender justice is expressed through its focus on mentoring and supporting young women with tools, opportunities, resources and platforms to tell stories that shape societies and disrupt old modes. Through its interventions, Nayanaya offers a bespoke journey of empowerment for young people on the margins of society to find their voice and leadership potential and become agents of change in their communities and society at large.
There is an urgent imperative for young women to occupy space in the narrative space to really claim their place in the social imagination. Despite the rising number of young story tellers who are disrupting old ways, perspectives and generating new narratives and lenses, there is a need for broadening the participation of young women in storytelling, extending their presence in the nexus of story-telling and social transformation. True transformation cannot only be about women being included in the story, but when they are part of both shaping and telling the story.
Where to find us
You can reach us on our contact details
Nayanaya currently works in Orange Farm, Diepsloot and X? In the first year of this strategy, we will expand our interventions in the areas where we currently work. However, by year 3, we intend to expend our initiative nationally and to begin exploring regional expansion.