organisation profile                                           

  • 1996
  • "Other-Wise media" is founded with the aim of making awareness-raising media and media skills accessible to youth from marginalised and disadvantaged backgrounds, especially female children and young women
  • Conducted a radio-training course with a group of young women who had experienced life on the street. The young women created a series of radio programmes about their lives and the lives of other girls living on the street, including a radio drama, "Nonhlupeko" (39min). The project was funded by the Open Society Foundation and the programmes were broadcast on various community radio stations around the country.
  • 1997
  • Young women previously trained by Other-Wise carry on to produce their own series of radio programmes for community radio. Mastering sound editing on computer was a vital element of the course. The outcomes of the project was a series highlighting the plight of women and girls living on the street and a four part oral history series "Iintsomi, Amabali Akwantu" . The project was funded by the Open Society Foundation
  • "Scars" (30 min), a video documentary about the friendship of two young children living on the streets of Cape Town, commissioned by ZDF (Germany). Broadcast on 3 SAT1 in March 1998.
  • "The Wound that does not bleed", a photographic and video exhibition on the lives of children and youth living on the streets of Cape Town as part of a cultural festival "Identity and Difference" organised by the city of Turin (Italy)
  • 1998
  • "Iduma Elingopiyo, The Wound that does not Bleed" (60 min), a documentary about children and youth living on the streets of Cape Town, shot over a period of two years, funded by The Royal Netherlands Embassy. Young women trained by Other-Wise do sound for the documentary. It won second prize in Best Foreign Films category in the Adriaticocinema, Rimini, Italy and is invited to the 41 st Leipzig Documentary and Animation Film Festival.
  • Other-Wise, media with youth is commissioned a series of 10 radio programmes for Women's Media Watch, a pressure group challenging racism, stereotyping and sexism in the media. The series is called "Women whose work is stimulating changes in their communities and the world" The young women trained by Other-Wise media are integrally involved in the conceptualising, recording and editing of the programmes.
  • Other-Wise initiates creative workshops run with awaiting trial juveniles in section B4 at Pollsmoor Prison. From this project a separate organisation is born, CRED (creative education with youth at risk).
  • 1999
  • Other-Wise and Women's Media Watch collaborate to produce "Who's News?" (26 min.), a documentary about women's opinions of their representation of women in the media. The documentary is used to raise awareness amongst journalists all around the country.     
  • Creative writing, art and radio training workshops are run by Other-Wise in collaboration with CRED at Hawequa youth prison and Faure School of Safety for Girls. Funded by NIZA (Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa)
  • "Iduma Elingopiyo", an exhibition of photographs, texts, drawings, radio programmes and video held at the   South African National Library as part of the "100XC, Month of Photography" organised by the South African Centre for Photography -as part of the "One City Many Cultures" festival.
  • 2000
  • "Tomorrow's Heroes" an internationally funded documentary exploring youth involved in gangsterism.
  • Publication of a photographic book "The Wound that does not Bleed", with text based on the documentary of the same title. Funded by Umverteilen Stiftung fur Eine Solidarische Welt. Distributed to schools and libraries.
  • "The Bottom Line", a video documentray exploring the excessive profiteering of pharmaceutical companies from AIDS drugs commissioned by RAI 3 television Italy.
  • 2001
  • Published "Ground Floor" an anthology of creative writing by incarcerated male and female youth, distributed to schools, libraries as part of a crime prevention awareness campaign.
  • Produced a series of radio programmes in collaboration with IDASA, "Youth Against Crime", recorded during creative workshops with sentenced juveniles in two correctional institutions. Distributed to community radio stations. "Ground Floor" and "Youth Against Crime" were funded by NIZA (Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa).
  • 2002
  • "Call me Dog" a photographic exhibition by troubled youth on the Cape Flats aged 9 - 19. Exhibited as part of the Month of Photography in Cape Town. On permanent exhibition at the e-centre (a project of Naspers). The photographs were published in Marie Claire Italy April 2003
  • 2003
  • "Doing It!" a 52 min documentary on young women HIV/Aids and sexuality. Sponsored by the National Film and Video Foundation, The Open Society Foundation, The City of Cape Town and The National Association of Child Care Workers. " Doing it !" won the audience prize at the Cinema delle Donne Film Festival, Turin, Italy; the jury award at the Ismailia Film Festival, Egypt as well as a golden Stone award in South Africa from the National Television and Video Association (NTVA) . It is currently being transformed into a book to be published by Jacana Press .
  • Teaching a group of HIV positive women, living in Khayelitsha and receiving anti-retroviral treatment, photographic skills. The photographic essays documenting their lives were published in the book, "Long Life" by Double Story Press.
  • 2004
  • Other-Wise's documentary, "BROWN", is a 54 minute, cross genre, historical and musical documentary where the issue of forced removals is explored. Through the eyes of Ernie, a successful and talented young singer, her grandparents’ and parents’ story of dispossession unfolds. The resilience of the family emerges as well as the high price they paid. It was funded by the Open Society Foundation for South Africa and was screened to critical acclaim at the Cape Town World Cinema Festival in November 2004.
  • 2005
  • March 2005 "BROWN" won first prize in the African Documentary section of the 15 th African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival in Milan, Italy. June 2005 ; Best South African Documentary at the 26th Durban International Film Festival and Best Documentary at the Apollo Film Festival in Victoria West, 2005, South Africa.
  • 2006
  • "Face the People" – a multi-media tribute in portraits and stories to twenty extraordinary community health workers in and around Cape Town. Each of the people featured in this project was nominated by their local health committee because the work they are doing which contributes to the well-being of their communities. The Department of Health, through the Metropolitan District Health Services, is using this exhibition to popularise the concept of social capital. The exhibition comprises of 20 portraits painted from life, 100 photographs and a dvd combining all the elements of the exhibition. Face the People opened in Langa at the Guga Sithebe Centre and has since toured to the University of the Western Cape, Mitchells Plain, Community House in Salt River and Khayelitsha Look out Hill.
  • 2007
  • “Eye to Eye – Sighting Heritage” – an exploration of slavery and local heritage through the eyes of South African youth. Workshops were run at the Slave Lodge imparting story-telling and photographic skills. The project was commissioned by the Arts and Culture department of the City of Cape Town.