With InsightShare

Media | Storytelling | Community | Activism

The Participatory Video methodology is focused on supporting a community driven response to effect the social change they aspire to. Facilitators rapidly teach how to use video equipment through collaborative games and exercises, followed by production skills. This enables participation by anyone regardless of their literacy level, physical ability or age. It brings people together to explore issues, voice concerns or simply to be creative and tell stories. We are working with InsightShare to grow this community of practice in South Africa.

With Starkmacher e.V

Youth Development | Sustainability | Community | Global Exchange

YoUbuntu was a year long programme designed by Starkmacher e.V that brought together 18 youths from Berlin and Cape Town in monthly meetings. This was followed by two 2- week exchanges (one in South Africa, and one in Berlin). Participants learnt about sustainability, future-oriented approaches and explored innovative examples of green entrepreneurship. The programme aimed to promote a global community awareness and to train multipliers of sustainable ways of living. Participants were encouraged to build a support network amongst themselves that would endure long after the programme, and to use this network to further develop their own ideas to implement local initiatives.

With Starkmacher e.V

Sustainability | Environmental Education | Global Exchange

In 2016 – 2018, Calvin Dias represented the South African team of the StartUpcycling project hosted by Starkmacher e.V. This project brought together an international collective of different specialists in the fields of environmental education, recycling, upcycling, art and design, to create an e-learning platform that would assist youth in establishing the knowledge base required to manage local waste materials and expose youth to enterprise potentials in the upcycling and waste management sector.

With URI

Sustainability | Urban Resilience | Community | Nutrition

Cape Town is infamous for its wealth divides and we have found that gardens offer very powerful bridging spaces for diversities of people to come together to address some of the underlying issues driving this inequality. Using permaculture principles to convert unused public spaces into gardens, we create not just nutritious food, but environments for community members to gather, share knowledge and grow ideas.

With URI

Sustainability | Urban Resilience | Community

The Do It Together program seeks to bring people together to share skills that promote sustainable living. Workshops are conducted on Tuesdays at The Daily Goods Store in Muizenberg. Topics include urban gardening, medicine making, preserving and fermenting, repairing, upcycling etc. By sharing these different skill sets we are able to create capacity and resilience in our local community.

URI

Nutrition | Conscious Consumerism | Community

This started as an observation of individual food consumption in a shared workspace. Many issues became apparent, including inequality, lack of nutritional knowledge and waste. We decided to take one day a week to shop, prepare and eat together, paying special attention to collective spending power, where our food comes from, what nutrition it holds and it’s carbon footprint. Not only are these gatherings hugely informative, but they also build a healthy community relationship and awareness of the food system in its entirety.

With Djembe Conexoes

Global Exchange | Community | Knowledge Sharing

Djembe Conexoes offers cultural immersions to Brazillians wanting to experience South Africa from a deeper place than a tourist holiday would allow. It focuses on meaningful relationships, exploration of sustainable practices, historical and social context and the transformation that these experiences can trigger. Amava assists with programme design and co-facilitation of the immersions.

Bridge Building | Community | Knowledge Sharing

This is a group that formed in response to the very segregated living spaces of Cape Town. The question that spurred us into action, was that of Vuyani Qamata, a Gugulethu resident, who was regularly crossing the railway line to attend interesting talks, gatherings and workshops in the seaside village of Muizenberg: “Why do all these interesting things always happen on this side of the railway line?” The question was met by a long silence, and then a bustle of conversation that grew into a working group with this question at its core.