Aims and Objectives:

  • Fostering self-confidence, self-reliance and self-esteem in youth and women through gaining proficiency in technical and creative skills.

  • Providing education and training to disadvantaged youth and women to assist them to develop audio and visual literacy skills, and to impart the technological skills necessary to utilise and participate in the production of such media and art.
  • Creating a voice for those who are least heard, misrepresented or absent in mainstream media.
  • Facilitating narratives of resilience, courage and creativity with a focus on offering empowering as opposed to victim stories.
  • Creating awareness raising media and art which explores issues of class, race, identity, gender, abuse, sexuality, HIV and globalisation.
  • Challenging stigmatisation and marginalisation of HIV positive people and highlighting the pressing issues around the HIV/Aids crisis in South Africa.
  • Developing educational support materials to facilitate the use of the media and creative outcomes from the organisation in the form of books, manuals, hand sheets, guides, audio etc.
  • Distributing the awareness-raising media and art facilitated and created by the organisation to the public, educational institutions, organisations working with the issues, disadvantaged communities and other interested parties.
  • Creating social spaces, screenings and exhibitions where the work generated by the organisation, its participants and trainees is witnessed, viewed, engaged with and debate is stimulated around the issues.
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Other-Wise media is an association for non–profit and does not have any permanent employees but rather works on a project to project basis, collaborating with various different stakeholders, ex-trainees and role players.

Other-Wise media has two female executive directors:

Kali van der Merwe

Gabrielle Le Roux

The current all female Board Members of Other-Wise media are:

    Marlene Wasserman aka Dr. Eve – well-known media personality, expert sexologist and author

    Malika Ndlovu – poet, performer, award winning playwright, arts administrator and author

    Yvonne Banning – former actress, innovative theatre director and educator

    Gill Pointer – feminist, political activist, accountant and financial advisor