Dear Mr President – Hear our voices  focuses on the development and power of young South African voices pre and post elections. Youth are mobilising to build their skills and agency to promote democracy, human rights, and civic education as well as drive a more ‘hopeful’ and ‘active’ youth agenda within the political arena.

The creative content for this exhibition was developed within an extensive series of participatory workshops with Grade 12 youth in Secondary Schools, at TVET, (Technical, Vocational, Educational Training)  Colleges and with youth not in education, employment or training  in Durban townships. These workshops focused on civic education, democracy, and voter education prior to the recent elections.

The participants were mentored in storytelling and poetry as a tool for the development of a youth charter. A series of workshops using origami crafting provide a means to carry hundreds of written messages to government. These collective messages operate as a petition that gives voice to young people’s dreams and aspirations for the future and what changes are required to enable these. Curated by Art Buoy’s Bren Brophy in collaboration with photographer Harry Lock.The exhibition and workshop programme is a partnership project between One Voice South Africa, (OVSA), Art Buoy, DramAidE, and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, (FES).

Partners:
One Voice South Africa. (OVSA)
One Voice South Africa is an NGO that actively engages young people , especially girls and young women, on critical Human Rights, Youth Empowerment and Advocacy, WASH, (Water, sanitation and hygiene), Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights, Civic and Democracy-building Education, Career Pathing, and lifestyle/health issues. The OVSA team does this by supporting, mentoring and deploying Community-based Facilitators in 15 Secondary Schools surrounding Durban. They are also active in TVETs, (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) Colleges in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Gauteng, where they partner with women students on resilience-building, workplace preparedness, and transitioning into the work space.

Art Buoy
Art Buoy is a Curatorial and Cultural Arts agency that curates exhibitions and researches and develops arts based approaches and interventions for social change and community advocacy. Art Buoy partners with civil society Culture and Arts practitioners to develop participatory programs that generate creative content for public exhibitions.

DramAidE
DramAidE is a public health communication agency  based at the University of Zululand and University of KwaZulu Natal. DramAidE uses  creative arts as an enterprice to communicate health messages. The Organisation  develops non-judgemental, participatory, culturally sensitive methodologies. DramAidE facilitators are specialists in drama, story telling and poetry programs as interactive tools for youth to communicate effectively about their lived experience. DramAidE mentors and skills young people in ‘Action-Media’ approaches that nurture youth mobilization within campaigns and media communication platforms.

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in South Africa. (FES)
South Africa’s 30-year-old democracy is facing a credibility crisis due to persistent inequality, exploitation, racialized and gendered violence, corruption, and the breakdown and commodification of public services.  At the same time, politics, once regarded as a means tool for ordinary people to exercise agency and struggle for emancipation, is now increasingly viewed as a weapon of the elite. At FES South Africa, we live by the motto ‘democracy needs democrats’ and believe that politics should not be the exclusive domain of society’s elites. In our work, we promote alliance-building between progressive activists who work for renewal inside political parties and those who practice politics outside party structures. We also support initiatives that allow young people to gather across political boundaries and national borders and share their fears, frustrations, hopes, and ideas about the future. We seek to contribute to an inclusive political culture that leans on feminist insights and centers the marginalized voices of the working class, women, youth, and members of the LGBTQI community. Our definition of an inclusive political culture expands the concept of political participation beyond elections and emphasizes creativity, imagination, agency, hope, and renewal.