News
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.