About nayanaya trust

Who we are

nayanaya trust is a non-profit company founded in 2013. Its purpose is to create social change in communities through empowering young women. Through a combination of training, capacity development, mentoring and support, nayanaya trust offers a bespoke journey of empowerment for young people on the margins of society to find their voice and leadership potential as agents of change in their communities and society at large.

Young women drive nayanaya trust's programs. By creating non-profit films, nayanaya trust provides hands-on training and upskilling opportunities for emerging women filmmakers, supporting them to become agents of change in their communities and growing talents in the film industry.

Our approach

nayanaya trust's approach is grounded in a philosophy of leadership and empowerment — that it takes a collective and a community to make lasting change. As storytellers and filmmakers, the very nature of nayanaya trust's engagement both in front of and behind the camera is about collaboration and creating environments of trust and openness. In practice, nayanaya trust encourages young people to take the lead in creating their own stories, shaping and structuring how these will be told, developing and marketing their projects as they understand the communities in which they live.

nayanaya trust facilitates workshop processes with a strong focus on safety and compliance, fostering an enabling environment where young women are empowered to lead, be heard and express themselves on their own terms.

Our organizational initiative

What we believe

nayanaya trust believes 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, gender or other identities.

nayanaya trust believes in the power of stories to make visible things that would otherwise be rendered invisible — to move, heal and empower not only the receiver but the one telling the story. Stories have the power to build communities and to build new possibilities from which a just world can be manifested. As such, nayanaya trust works to mobilize the power of storytelling, through film, for the empowerment of young women in a world where, despite the activism of young women across the world, societies still marginalize their voices and perspectives — especially those young women from poor communities whose identities are considered outside the norm.

Our origins

Storytelling through filmmaking as activism

nayanaya trust's primary focus is young women from previously disadvantaged backgrounds who need upskilling and help finding their voice. The work nayanaya trust does includes motivating young people who are interested in pursuing filmmaking through workshops and targeted practical filmmaking, by creating projects they can participate in where they are mentored.

nayanaya trust's model of empowerment includes confidence building, which assists young women to pursue their passions.
Through mentorship and hands-on skills development, nayanaya trust has supported the creation of over twenty short films. Each filmmaker retains ownership of their work, using it as a stepping stone to access opportunities and generate funding for their own creative projects.

As the Executive Director of nayanaya trust, Xoliswa Sithole has curated film festivals including the UNiTE to End Violence Against Women Film Festival (2011/2012) and the yanaya gender film and dialogue festival (2015–2021), and through nayanaya trust has mentored and developed the skills and confidence of young African women and children from disadvantaged and marginalized communities to tell their stories, both in front of and behind the camera, becoming agents of change within their communities.

Who we work with

Collaboration and partnerships are key to nayanaya trust's approach. To advance its goals, nayanaya trust leverages partnerships with individuals and institutions who share its vision. As an organization that works with children and young women from largely disadvantaged communities, nayanaya trust constantly engages with stakeholders at different levels of society — from civil society organizations, government and the private sector — to raise resources that enable young people to tell the stories they feel need to be told.

Beyond storytelling, nayanaya trust brings successful people from all fields to mentor and run workshops with young people from marginalized backgrounds so they can find their voice. Collaboration with stakeholders encompasses receiving information, best practice advice and material support. During the filming process and once the films are made, nayanaya trust uses them as tools of advocacy, showcasing them at events where they can generate dialogue and posting them on nayanaya trust's youth-led blog and social media platforms for easy access. This advocacy is achieved in partnership with different stakeholders — these are the interrelationships that nayanaya trust depends on to strengthen, maintain and grow its networks.

The yanaya gender film and dialogue festival

The yanaya gender film and dialogue festival is a program of nayanaya trust, established in 2012 as a platform for showcasing films that explore themes of gender, LGBTQI+ identities, culture and broader social issues, particularly within rural and peri-urban communities. The festival aims to foster meaningful dialogue with communities, using film as a tool to promote social cohesion and contribute to nation-building.

The festival is not held annually. It takes place every two to three years, allowing for deeper engagement, curation and impact within the communities it serves. Programming includes film screenings, Q&A sessions, community dialogues, seminars and panel discussions, with a particular focus on ending violence against women and children.