News
Kenyan International Film Festival
October 25th, 2009
The Mwelu Foundation have had three films accepted into the Kenyan International Film Festival (KIFF). Ghetto Girl, Flying Toilet and Inevitable Pain will be shown along side other entries in various locations in Nairobi.
We were invited together with other film makers participating in the festival for the official launch yesterday which was officiated by Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka. The official programme of viewings is as follows:
- 21 October 2009 17:30 Ghetto Girl to be screened at Alliance Francaise
- 22 October 2009 14:20 Flying Toilet to be screened at Silver Bird Cinema Westgate
- 30 October 2009 12:15 Inevitable Pain to be screened at Silver Bird Cinema Westgate
From 14:00 on Sunday 25th October 2009 we will be showcasing our films and our organisation at the Alliance Francaise. We are looking forward to seeing our family, friends, partners and well wishers. Please come along and see the Mwelu Foundation members share their stories of film making in Mathare.
Top: Leila Dayan and Simon Onyango talk about the film Ghetto Girl.
Above-left: The viewing of Under Siege.
Above-right: Eric Kioko, who’s story is told in Under Siege, addresses the audience at KIFF.
“Dear Mr. President”
September 16th, 2009
Wanja Kimani, a UK-based artist, has recently completed a collaborative project with 14 members of The Mwelu Foundation.
As part the first phase of Wanja’s self-initiated project, ‘Dear Mr. President’, the group from Mathare took part in practical workshops and engaged in interviews. The final phase has seen her do similar work with a group of young people from the Greenstead Community Centre, Colchester, UK.
The project will culminate in a book titled “Dear Mr. President” to be released in December 2009. The publication aims to facilitate a visual conversation between the groups from Mathare and Colchester, exploring how one’s environment affects one’s self-perception and aspiration in light of President Barack Obama’s election. All proceeds from sales will contribute directly to sustaining of The Mwelu Foundation.
James Otieno speaks to IRIN about life in an internally displaced people’s camp
August 13th, 2009
James Otieno has spoken with the UN’s humanitarian news and analysis organisation, IRIN, about the time he spent living in an internally displaced people’s camp following Kenya’s post election violence at the end of 2007.
“I lived with my aunt in Mathare C since I lost my parents as a child. When things got very bad, we had to leave; we moved to camps.”
The full article can be read on the IRIN website.
The Mwelu Foundation on NTV, Kenya - Watch again!
June 16th, 2009
The Mwelu Foundation was featured in “Heros” on 25th May February on NTV, Kenya.
NTV Kenya paid a visit to the Mathare Valley slum in Nairobi to witness the children of The Mwelu Foundation filming their latest movie, Ghetto Girl.
Reporter, Rose Wangui, met with script writer Simon Onyango and chatted to Judy Joy Mugechi, Peter Gikonyo and Steven Otieno.
You can watch the clip from the programme below.
Julius Mwelu selected for Twenty Ten All Stars team
June 7th, 2009
Julius Mwelu has been selected as one of 108 African photographers and journalists to report on African stories leading up to the World Cup in South Africa in July 2010.
The Twenty Ten project aims to give African journalists a voice, both on the African continent, as well as worldwide. It offers African citizens the opportunity to experience their own view of African reality, as opposed to depending on foreign news organisations. It aims to encourage media professionals to creatively produce and distribute articles, images, broadcasts and multimedia productions related to African football.
Julius will receive training in reporting and will undertake a number of photo-journalism projects relating to the 2010 World Cup and African football.
At the end of 2009 the 18 most talented participants will be selected to become members of the Dream Team. Members of the Dream Team will be invited to travel to South Africa to cover the World Cup in June/July 2010.
See the Twenty Ten website for more information.
New photography training programme gets under way
June 7th, 2009
Sarah Parker, a social work student from Colorado State University has joined forces with the Mwelu Foundation to conduct a 3 month photography training programme. Armed with 25 brand-new point and shoot digital cameras the kids have already begun capturing images.
The programme comprises 4 mixed-gender groups of 5 children and will culminate in an exhibition.
Watch this space for more information!
Group photographs below, clock-wise from top left: Group Golden Rangers, Group Heroes, Group Passion and Group Zuhura.
New office equipment purchased
May 16th, 2009
With assistance from the Wings of Support Foundation the Mwelu Foundation has purchased 4 desktop computers and a selection of essential office furniture.
The computers will be used for photo and video editing and for general training in basic computer literacy.
All the kids at the Mwelu Foundation send their sincere thanks to Wings of Support for their generous assistance.
Mwelu Foundation photographs featured in Europa magazine
May 10th, 2009
Two photos taken by Julius Mwelu (Water is Life and When the Sun Goes Down) have appeared in the May issue of Europa, the magazine of European Alternatives, an organisation dedicated to exploring the potential for a post-national or transnational politics and culture.
The magazine can be read in full online.
Joseph Kinyua becomes a published photographer
March 12th, 2009
Joseph Kinyua’s photo, Rubbish Heap, has been selected to appear in the next edition of the publication Understanding Environmental Pollution by Marquita Hill. The commission earned will be spilt 50:50 between Joseph’s school fees and sustaining the operations of the Foundation.
The Mwelu Foundation on the BBC - Watch again!
February 10th, 2009
The Mwelu Foundation was featured in “Explore: The Rift Valley” on 1st February on BBC2 in the UK.
Thank you so much for all the kind messages and offers of support we have received since then.
You can watch the clip from the programme below.
The Mwelu Foundation on the BBC!
January 28th, 2009
Anyone who has access to BBC television should watch “Explore” on BBC TWO on Sunday 1st Feb at 9pm, featuring the Mwelu Foundation!
For more information, see the listing on the BBC website.
Julius Mwelu wins The Young Reporter Prize of the Prix Bayeux for War Correspondence
October 11th, 2008
Julius Mwelu has won the Young Reporter Prize of the Prix Bayeux for War Correspondence for the photos he took during the post election violence at the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008. The award pays tribute to journalists who work in hazardous conditions to provide the world with information.
Julius made the following statement about his submission of photographs:
“This selection of photographs is only a small sample of the anger, violence and tragic death that I have witnessed. Photographing these events has not been easy for me but it has been my way of demonstrating. I do not want to confront the police at the roadblocks with machetes and stones, but with my camera. This way I can show the world what is happening and pray that change may come.”
For more information, see the article on the Prix Bayeux website.
Al Jazeera feature The Mwelu Foundation in Africa Uncovered
August 20th, 2008
Today, the television network Al Jazeera has featured the activities of The Mwelu Foundation and Slum TV in a documentary looking at the post election violence in Kenya earlier this year.
Benson and Julius feature in the documentary which can be viewed below.
Part 1
Part 2
The Mwelu Foundation travel to Barcelona to talk with HoritzoTV
June 1st, 2008
Julius Mwelu and Steven Otieno have travelled to Barcelona, Spain to talk with HoritzoTV, the interaction television station, about life in Mathare and the work of the Mwelu Foundation.
HoritzoTV is an exhibition project and a worldwide meeting point for alternative television agents and proposals which are broadcast from analogical and digital platforms. HoritzoTV investigates and screens interactive television projects in a context in which everyone can be both broadcaster and receiver.
The discussion can be viewed on the HoritzoTV website.
Shootback exhibition in Paris
May 15th, 2008
To celebrate a decade of work by powerful photography by kids from Mathare the Shootback exhibition went back on display at 17 rue Dieu, Paris on 15th May.
Julius Mwelu travelled to Paris from Mathare for the opening of the exhibition and to talk about how he has continued with the Shootback concept through the Mwelu Foundation.
The exhibition received a great deal of interest from the international press:
Also, the Shootback story now has it’s own website with the stories and photos from the original Shootback group including Julius Mwelu.
Julius Mwelu wins first prize in Friends of the Earth International photography competition
April 30th, 2008
Julius Mwelu has won first prize in the Friends of the Earth International photography competition. The theme for the competition was “Dreams, Hopes and Possibilities for a Better World.”
More than 600 photos were received from 62 countries around the world, from amateur and professional photographers ranging in age from 10 to 67 years old. The photos were organized into two categories - Reclaiming Tradition, and Building Towards the Future - and were judged both on technical merit and on relevance to the theme of the competition. Julius won first prize in the “Building Towards a Better Future” category for his photograph of a boy planting flower in Mathare.
More details and other entries can be seen on the FOEI website.
Message from Lana Wong
November 13th, 2007
In 1997, I met Julius Mwelu and his mother in their one-room home in Mathare - one of Africa’s largest and most notorious slums on the outskirts of Nairobi. In an area roughly the size of New York’s Central Park, roughly three-quarters of a million people live in cramped corrugated iron shacks, most without electricity and running water. The average income is a dollar a day.
Julius’ father had long since passed away, and one of his brothers brewed chang’aa- the cheap but lethal illicit brew that many slum dwellers drink to forget their problems.
Julius was eager to join the Shootback Project, a youth photography and development initiative that I had started in Mathare. One of our 31 members had just dropped out, so there was room to take on another student. For several days, Julius begged Kimanzi, my partner in the project, to give him a chance to join the group.
Julius’ persistence paid off, as well as his instinctive talent and remarkable determination to succeed against all odds in the slum. Ten years after taking his first photos with the Shootback Project, Julius now has an impressive list of group and solo photo exhibitions to his name, a book of his own photographs published, experience as a cameraman (he shot a video diary of his life that became the basis of the documentary film Shoot Back! produced by Prounen Films, Germany) and last year, was invited to be “artist in residence” at the Vrije Academie in The Hague.
I am thrilled and proud that Julius has launched this foundation in an effort to continue the legacy of youth empowerment through photography that Shootback started. Just as Kimanzi and I did a decade ago, Julius is teaching kids in Mathare how to take pictures so they have a voice to tell their own stories. Julius is living proof that this empowering process can have a remarkable impact.
The incredible story of Julius’ transformation from gang member to role model and rising star of Kenyan photojournalism is inspiring testimony that the intervention of a grassroots development project can indeed change individual lives. I am confident that Julius and his commitment to the Mwelu Foundation will produce more stories of hope and inspiration in the years to come.
Lana Wong was Julius Mwelu’s first photography teacher from the Shootback Project and editor of Shootback : Photos by Kids from the Nairobi Slums
15 children selected for UN multimedia training
October 6th, 2007
15 children from The Mwelu Foundation have been selected to participate in NOOR - a United Nations run multimedia workshop.
The project aims at “empowering teenagers from Mathare to document their lives, express themselves through visual arts, develop their creativity and to report from poverty and violence instead of getting involved.”
The training will further develop the photographic skills of the children as well as teaching the history of photography, painting, design, film/TV production, radio, geography, English and Kiswahili writing skills and computer literacy.
The course will consist of two teaching modules each of 4 months in length, will start in November 2007 and will be held at the UN’s IRIN offices in Gigiri, Nairobi.
Photo exhibiton in Mathare
June 10th, 2007
45 children from Mathare proudly exhibited their photos today in The Mwelu Foundation’s first photo exhibition.
The exhibition - held at the Inspiration Centre, Mathare - was open the the public and was attended by hundreds of local people from Mathare who had the opportunity to view their own community through the eyes if the children.
All the children received a certificate and prize to celebrate their work.
The Mwelu Foundation would like to thank Seong-Kyun Kim and Jiha Kim of the Purme Foundation in South Korea for their help in organising the exhibition.
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