Support refugee advocacy and empowerment in Malawi

Overview

From the 2^nd to the 5^th of November 2023, Tumaini Letu hosted the 9^th edition of its flagship program, the Tumaini Festival at the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Dowa, Malawi.

The festival kicked off on Thursday 2^nd November at 2pm with a series of workshops to reenforce the capacity of young people at the Dzaleka Refugee Camp and its surrounding areas in skills such as Visual Arts, Filmmaking, Circus, Poetry and Short Story Writing, Acting, and Playwriting. These workshops aimed at developing creative skills among young refugees and the youth from the host community in order to help them become competitive in the creative job market. The workshop was also an opportunity for young refugees and Malawians to connect, collaborate and co-create.

The evening of the first day, 2^nd of November 2023, was dedicated to an outdoor cinema, where three films were screened to let the community enjoy a cinema experience.

From the 3^rd to the 5^th of November 2023, the festival reached its full capacity with eight showcase areas such as the Main Stage, the Youth Stage, the Cultural Ground, the Poetry Corner, the Theater Corner, the Children Art & Play Ground, the African Food Market, and the Arts and Crafts Market. The festival was a feast of different art forms such as music, poetry, theater, acrobatics, dance, art exhibition, traditional food, talks, etc.

Tumaini Festival 2023 hosted 115 showcases from artists and speakers representing 9 nations: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Italy, France, USA, South Africa and Denmark.

Audience

Tumaini is the biggest celebration in Malawi and the only one of its kind in the world. The festival attracted over 35,000 attendees from every corner of Malawi and different parts of the world to celebrate humanity and show solidarity with refugees.

Tumaini Festival is the most diverse festival in the country, it unifies refugees, Malawians, the international communities living in Malawi and people that visited from outside Malawi. Tumaini Festival is the only festival where children, the youth and the elderly, the poor, the middle class and rich people can celebrate together without any form of disclination.

The festival is free of charge for every attendee. Tumaini believes that art is a basic need that everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy.

Impact

1. Economic: The festival supported entrepreneurship from Dzaleka Refugee Camp and other parts of Malawi by creating a market space on which artists and artisans set up stalls to sell hand craft products made in Dzaleka and its surrounding areas, other entrepreneurs sold different services to the visitors. The festival also created a food market on which the refugee community built restaurants and bars to sell a variety of eastern and southern African food and drinks. The market space gave an opportunity to 50 entrepreneurs to sell their goods and services.

The festival created job opportunities for refugee carpenters, builders, tailors, security personnel, cleaners, tour guides, sound and light engineers, stagehands, and it offered a platform to artists and performers to monetize their skills and talents. The festival created job opportunities for 1200 refugees and Malawians.

After a survey with the community and festival visitors, it is estimated that Tumaini Festival 2023 helped the community generate over close to $200,000.

1. Sociocultural: Tumaini brought people from all walks of life together and offered them an opportunity to connect and celebrate life together without discrimination and social barriers. The guests and the refugee community had the opportunity to interact and share stories regardless of their social backgrounds. Through the Tumaini’s Homestay Program, visitors and refugees were offered the opportunity to live under the same roof and were given the chance to share experiences and learn from each other.
   
   The interaction Tumaini created between refugees, Malawians, and the international community sparkled a much-needed conversation regarding refugee issues and challenges. The Tumaini Festival was a smart and effective way to advocate for refugees by bringing people together, empowering refugee voices, and providing a platform to bring these voices to the country, the continent, and the world, especially as 2023 was a difficult year for refugees in Malawi due to the Government’s order to forcibly bring all refugees to the already congested Dzaleka Refugee Camp.

Links:

• News article on Elpais
• Documentary on BBC World Service