CO-FOUNDER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR: DR ANASTASIA KOCH
Dr Anastasia (Tasha) Koch co-founded of Eh!woza together with conceptual artist Ed Young in 2013 as an extra-curricular project during her PhD studies. The informal interest-driven work developed over the subsequent years, and now exists as an independent NPO based in Cape Town.
Tasha graduated with a PhD from the University of Cape Town in 2015, and in 2017 was awarded a Carnegie Corporation DEAL fellowship to use genomics to investigate the pathobiology of M. tuberculosis under the mentorship of Prof. Digby Warner in the Molecular Mycobacteriology Research Unit (MMRU) lab at UCT, where she remains an Honorary Lecturer. Her part-time biomedical research focusses in using genomics to understand the transmission and pathobiology of M. tuberculosis and she is a molecular biology advisor to the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation’s Aerobiology Research Centre.
In 2020, facilitated by a Wellcome Trust Discretionary Award in Public Engagement to establish Eh!woza as an independent NPO, Tasha shifted focus to work on Eh!woza full-time, where she manages conceptual, administrative and implementation areas of the organisation. Tasha is interested in developing impact assessment models for public engagement that are relevant to the local context; and in how the social determinants of health influence the uptake of biomedical interventions.
SOCIAL MEDIA, EVENTS AND COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATORMBALI JIYANE
She began her career as a social media intern with Doctors Without Borders Southern Africa (MSF) and eventually went on to digital health promotion within the same organisation. She is now working as a Social Media and Event Facilitator for EH!WOZA. She has created effective digital initiatives on her own and with a team, targeting hard-to-reach areas and providing them with easy access to healthcare information. Her most successful campaign took place during COVID-19, and it focused on promoting COVID-19 vaccines. Within two weeks, it reached 4 million people in South Africa. She was also part of the team that developed KHETHA, a youth-centred digital HIV counselling syllabus.
Her ambition is to advance in the field of communication within the humanitarian sector, reaching out to underserved people through digital communication tools.
JUNIOR CREATIVE DIRECTOR: SAMUEL FLANS
Samuel Flans, aka Innocent Muziq, was born in Cala in the Eastern Cape in 1996 and is currently based in Makhaza, Khayelitsha. He is an aspiring filmmaker, musician and actor and started producing music while still in high school. His most recent music video, Togetherness, produced in collaboration with Eh!woza in 2020, was well received by fans and highlights his artistic agility. Sam began his collaboration with Eh!woza in 2017 with music the video production for his track, Single Parent. Since then, he has been working with Eh!woza as a musician collaborator on Eh!woza’s MSF/Musos/DR-TB project and later as a lead facilitator during Eh!woza’s workshops. Sam formed part of a filmmaking training programme and, in 2020, started producing content focussing on the impact of COVID-19 on local communities and broader issues surrounding the social determinants of health and social justice. In 2020 he won two Documentary Filmmakers’ Association docLOVE Citizen Journalist awards. In 2023, he won the Best Documentary Short Film award at the 1st edition RAW Film Festival. Films have been broadcast nationally in collaboration with Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism, Cape Town TV and News24.
DIRECTOR: BIANCA MASUKU
Bianca Masuku is a young black researcher who is passionate about issues that involve young people and their experiences of health and the world and is a Junior Research Fellow at the Centre for Innovation in Teaching and Learning at UCT and a founding director of Eh!woza. She is currently in the final stages of completing her PhD in Social and Medical Anthropology at the University of Cape Town. Bianca’s doctoral research involves close proximity with Eh!woza, exploring TB within the township of Khayelitsha and the young participants enrolled in the Eh!woza project. She explores how residents of this burdened setting configure and construct understandings of infectious diseases therein. Her investigation builds on her broader interests, including youth and health, gender and sexuality, reproductive health, and infectious diseases.
OFFICE MANAGER | CAMERA AND DRONE OPERATOR | ALFA FIPAZA
Alfa Fipaza is a young camera operator, drone pilot, and the equipment manager at Eh!woza based in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Alfa enrolled in the Eh!woza doccies project, while completing grade 11 at Chris Hani High School, he produced his second Eh!woza film with Xola Mfakadolo called We’re Still Here. The project documented former mineworkers dealing with providence claims withheld by mining companies, silicosis, TB and other health issues resulting from working in mines over many years. He has since continued working with Eh!woza, guiding high school learners in the production of documentaries as part of Eh!woza’s Learner Doccies project. I’ve also assisted in the production of music videos, such as Single Parent and Togetherness by Innocent Muziq and Nquml’umqala by Abospitter, and collaborated on production of the No Electricity No Money film that won the Bertha Raw Documentary Film Award in 2023
ARTIST AND PRODUCTION DESIGNER: MICHAEL LINDERS
Michael Linders was born in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1983 and moved with his family to Johannesburg in 1987. He currently lives and works in Cape Town as a practising artist and a production designer in the film and commercials industry in South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. “Migi” has observed the developments of the media workshops since the inception of the Eh!woza project in 2013 and more recently began formally collaborating with Eh!woza as a creative and visual communications instructor on the MSF/Musos/DR-TB/Collab project. His role in the project has been to provide both conceptual and technical support and guidance to set design and production for music videos in his capacity as both an Art Director for Wigwam and as a visual artist.
ARTIST AND ANIMATOR: MITCHELL GILBERT MESSINA
Mitchell Gilbert Messina works primarily as a video artist in Cape Town, South Africa. He produces short narrative and conversational videos told through found images, re-purposed 3D models, stock footage, foley sound packs and motion graphics. The works employ improvisational strategies to see themselves through: reacting to google results, producing scenes before scripts, talking to scientists, and knocking .pngs against each other until they make meaning. His unique visual language led to his collaboration with Eh!woza. Mitchell works to produce short biomedically accurate informational animation series around COVID-19 and more recently, HIV, TB and other relevant health issues. The animations form a free online resource to be shared widely for educational and informational purposes. Mitchell has recently been recruited to Eh!woza on a part-time basis, and together with Cheleka, leads the science communication aspects of the organisation.
PHOTOGRAPHY AND DESIGN INTERN: USISIBUSISO MQINA
Usisibusiso Mqina is an emerging poet, actress, and writer from Makhaza, a township in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. She graduated from Harry Gwala Senior Secondary School in 2019. In 2017, she joined the Eh!woza workshop program and returned in 2018 to produce a short film Isifo Sephepha, which highlights TB's impact on those in informal settlements. Currently, she is a photography and design intern with Eh!woza and contributed to the documentary No Electricity, No Money directed by Sam Flans, which won “Best Documentary Film” at the Raw Film Festival 2023. Collaborating with Isivivana Centre Library, “Now we will praise”, and Bertha Movie House, she has created a successful poetry program that addresses health, social issues, and other important topics to raise awareness.
Her aspiration is: “I want the work that we do to reach more communities.”
DIRECTOR: DIGBY WARNER
Digby Warner is a Professor in the Division of Medical Microbiology, Department of Pathology, at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and a Full Member of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM). He serves as Platform Lead: Basic Sciences in the Wellcome Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Africa (CIDRI-Africa) and as Deputy Director of the SAMRC/NHLS/UCT Molecular Mycobacteriology Research Unit. His current research is aimed at understanding fundamental aspects of mycobacterial physiology and metabolism, with a particular focus on the use of molecular and imaging techniques to detect, quantify and analyse M. tuberculosis in clinical samples. Digby provides conceptual, managerial and strategic oversight of Eh!woza, and as a founding director, has closely been involved in its growth and development.
CO-FOUNDER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR: ED YOUNG
Ed Young is a contemporary visual artist and a founding director of Eh!woza. He graduated with an MFA (with distinction) from UCT’s Michaelis School of Fine Art in 2005. Ed has a productive art career with regular international and local solo exhibitions, group shows and art fair presentations and over 15 years of teaching experience, focusing on the discourse of art, video art production, and performance art and conceptualism. Industry experience includes several years of service film production between 2008 and 2015. In addition to day-to-day operations, Ed manages the creative, conceptual and strategic aspects of Eh!woza, with a particular focus on film production, capacity development, and the production of situationally relevant material. He is currently pursuing a PhD in medical microbiology.