Causes

Community & economic development Arts & culture Youth development

Posted by

Tresor Nzengu M.

Founder & Exective Director

Our mission

We exist to:

* to promote peaceful coexistence, mutual understanding and intercultural harmony between refugees and the host communities using artistic expression;
* to provide opportunities for skills development through trainings and workshops;
* to boost the economy of refugees in Malawi through providing entrepreneurship skills and income generating opportunities;
* to promote the psychosocial well being of displaced populations by providing them with opportunities for creative expression, entertainment, counseling and community events;
* to advocate for refugees rights using events, media and public influencers to champion the refugee cause.

What we do

The flagship program of Tumaini Letu, is the annual Tumaini Cultural Exchange Festival, which has been taking place since 2014. Since its inception, over 99,000 people have attended the event, and 304 performing acts from across the world have shared the stages with refugee artists and it has united 18 nationalities of performers. Tumaini has so far achieved a media reach estimated at 50,000,000 people worldwide, presenting a genuinely different and positive story about refugees.
In addition to the annual festival, Tumaini Letu has been running on going programs in Dzaleka Refugee Camp such as:

1. The Dzaleka Storytelling Project
The main objective of this project is to contribute towards intercultural learning, through safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage of refugees and asylum seekers in Dzaleka as well as the host communities living in the surroundings of Dzaleka Refugee Camp by documenting and telling of traditional stories (folktales) from their countries. This project is run through Tumaini Letu in partnership with the Malawi National Commission of UNESCO. 2000 refugee and Malawian children are going to benefit from storytelling sessions in 2020.

2. The Creative Education Program
The Creative Education Program consists of visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, photography, music and acting trainings at Dzaleka. These trainings are run throughout the year to empower refugee youth through arts, to equip them with the right skills that would make them competitive in the creative market in Malawi or upon return to their countries of origin. This initiative also empowers young refugee voices and fosters their pride and self-esteem. This program has been running since 2017.

3. The Tumaini Youth Talent Shows
The talent shows at Dzaleka Refugee Camp have helped discover new talent in the young refugee community since 2017. After being discovered, the young talents are promoted on the Tumaini Festival stages, in radio and TV interviews, and other performance opportunities across Malawi. In total, 150 groups of refugee artists have benefited from this program over the three past years.

4. The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Training
The entrepreneurship and innovation training focuses on training inhabitants of Dzaleka Refugee Camp, especially youth and women, in business and entrepreneurship skills, and creates a market to enable them to find opportunities to sell their products and services, during the annual Tumaini Festival and outside Dzaleka throughout the year. This encourages entrepreneurship as a tool for the refugee community to become self-reliant and self-sustaining.