Wellcome has been one of Eh!woza’s primary partners and funders since 2014, with an International Engagement Award. In 2020, We were awarded a Discretionary Award in Public Engagement, catalysing Eh!woza’s transition into an independent organisation. Wellcome has thus been crucial for Eh!woza’s development - providing both funding and valuable strategic guidance.
The South African National Research Foundation (NRF) has been supporting Eh!woza’s activities since 2015, via Community Engagement Funding Instruments. Support provided facilitates Eh!woza Doccies workshops and elements of the Schools Programme. By providing support for postgraduate students, the NRF also strongly develops the engaged scholarship aspects of our programmes.
Médecins Sans Frontières’ Khayelitsha project is a partner on the MSF/Musos/DR-TB Collab. Young adults that are part of MSF-facilitated drug-resistant TB treatment adherence groups are brought together with Khayelitsha-based musicians to encourage the production of music, music videos and other creative outputs inspired by the experiences of surviving DR-TB. The project was put on hold during the COVID pandemic, and Eh!woza is designing ways to restart the programme in 2022.
IkamvaYouth learners enrolled in Eh!woza Doccies are recruited from the Makhaza branch of the NGO that provides extra-curricular tutoring to high school learners. IkamvaYouth forms a close and long-standing partner and offers much-needed advice around the needs of learners in Makhaza.
The Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism is a dissemination partner for Eh!woza’s documentaries and provides invaluable editorial advice for Eh!woza’s films. The partnership was established during the COVID lockdown around disseminating Eh!woza produced documentaries that focus on the social impact of the pandemic. The collaboration has continued to grow, resulting in a collaborative NRF COVID-19 Rapid Africa award.
The Daily Vox aims to put the young citizens at the centre of the news. Their reporters seek to find, curate and amplify the voices of young South Africans. They are a crucial dissemination partner amplifying Eh!woza produced material to a large social media platform. Citizen. Speak. Amplify.
Youth Capital is a youth-led campaign with an Action Plan that combines data with young people’s lived stories to shift gears on youth unemployment. They believe in a South Africa where every young person has the skills and opportunity to get their first decent job. Youth Capital has been instrumental in promoting Eh!woza and its media to their wide following of young people.
Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (Prof Nolwazi Mkhwanazi). By co-supervising two PhD students, Prof. Nolwazi Mkhwanazi forms a key partner for qualitative assessment and research around Eh!woza’s outcomes. Moreover, Eh!woza was a key collaborator on Wellsexuality, a project that aimed to gain insights into young people’s perceptions of sex and sexuality and how this might influence the uptake of public health programmes.
Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership. SANTHE and BHP PhD fellow, Lucy Mupfumi, was awarded a DELTAS Africa Seed Award in public engagement grant to engage young people in Gaborone with TB research by applying an Eh!woza-style model. Workshops, conducted over two weeks in Jan 2020, led to the production of a film developed and shot by workshop participants. This led to informal links with the institution, and Eh!woza is partnering with BHP-based researcher Tuelo Mogashoa to translate Eh!woza animations into Setswana for dissemination in Botswana.
Social Justice Coalition. Eh!woza has been working with the SJC around film-making and documenting some of the social issues the SJC advocates for, particularly where social justice overlaps and intersects with health.
Wellcome Centre of Infectious Disease Research in Africa (CIDRI-Africa) has provided strong institutional support for Eh!woza since its inception. Ed held a PE Award administered by the centre (until May 2021), and Prof. Digby Warner leads CIDRI-Africa’s basic sciences platform. The two groups have already co-implemented several projects, with more to come over the next few years.
MESH (Helen Latchem). Eh!woza is partnering with MESH and Interfer to host a series of virtual events over 2021 with the theme of “Connectors” in public engagement. The virtual events will form the basis for and culminate in an in-person event in 2022.
The Molecular Mycobacteriology Research Unit(MMRU) has been closely involved in Eh!woza’s growth and development over the years and supported Eh!woza’s inaugural public engagement work by seed funding Eh!woza’s pilot documentary. Postgraduate students from the unit are closely involved in facilitating science workshops, while Prof. Digby Warner, co-director of the MMRU, is one of Eh!woza’s founding directors.
Cape Town TV is another key dissemination partner for Eh!woza’s documentary film media. The channel provides a hyper-local and relevant audience for Eh!woza’s films and the most extensive viewership per minute watched.
Interfer and Eh!woza share similar approaches and thoughts towards public engagement. While no formal projects have been co-implemented yet, several potential projects are being developed with Nabeel Petersen. He is also a partner in arranging a series of virtual events to highlight the theme of “Connectors” in public engagement.
WigWam (Michael Linders) provides invaluable creative and technical input for art department and production design for Eh!woza’s music videos.