Launched on 29 September 2021, the Kisima African Giving Platform is a project supported by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa and several other partners, that seeks to promote good giving stories and mobilise resources that can be deployed whenever a disaster strikes in any part of the continent.
This platform was inspired by research on the impact of COVID-19 on three sectors -philanthropy, civil society and corporate social investments. The findings of the research showed that people across the continent of Africa are always ready to help each other in times of need. The COVID-19 pandemic and previous humanitarian disasters have demonstrated the giving nature of Africans and raised the need to articulate the way in which all Africans in the continent and in the diaspora have contributed financially and otherwise to development.
If Africans can rally together and pool their resources as a collective, there is no challenge that they cannot overcome.
The Kisima African Giving Platform comprises of three components. The first component is the repository of good and positive African stories of giving and support across the board. These stories will be showcased in the form of voice notes, images, Instagram stories, YouTube short films, blogs, and research articles. These will be stories of resilience and giving among Africans. We will invite Africans to give and deposit their stories through the initiative.
The second component of the initiative consists of a campaign to raise funds and other forms of resources towards specific continental causes or needs. The third component of the initiative consists of reporting on the impact of giving, firstly as it relates to the initiative; and secondly on the impact of giving across the continent from national, regional and continental initiatives.
“We have to position Africans themselves in the position where they are the storytellers, you cannot have somebody else tell your story and expect it to be your narrative, so we need to have Africans telling their own stories.” – Dr Bhekinkosi Moyo (Director, Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment)
Learn More About the Kisima Initiative: https://www.kisimagiving.org/
Submit your stories: https://www.kisimagiving.org/submit-a-story/
For more information about the Kisima African Giving Platform, contact: Mapaseka Mokwele at mapaseka.mokwele@wits.ac.za
