2009 - Current

Sold Inside – supported by the International Organisation for Migration

There is evidence of an increasing number of women and girls being trafficked for sexual exploitation globally. South Africa is not excluded from this, despite the prevalent ignorance of this issue amongst the majority of South Africans. Research shows that the rate of human trafficking, in particular of women and children, increases around large-scale events such as the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The trafficking of women and children for sexual purposes and for work enslavement is an extreme form of human exploitation, which inflicts psychological, physiological and sexual abuse.
Sold Inside is a theatre-as-activism training and outreach performance programme that augments the International Organisation for Migrations's (IOM) pilot programme in the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Kwazulu Natal provinces in South Africa. The project introduces participants in these 4 provinces to theatre as a means of achieving greater personal autonomy, while engaging with theatre as a means of activism.
Our work with this problem area is timely in raising awareness around the critical issue of human trafficking within South Africa’s borders. Recent research conducted by the IOM shows that since South Africa’s adoption of the Palermo Protocol in 2004, the main awareness-raising focus has been on cross border trafficking. However, recent research shows that internal trafficking is becoming more prevalent in South Africa.
Sold Inside in its collaborative approach seeks to complement the IOM’s efforts within development and activism processes. We seek to share skills and processes that community groups and networks we engage with can continue to implement and use as a foundation for developing projects of their own, beyond the conclusion of our work with them.

2005-2006

Laphum’Ilanga – supported by UNIFEM

Laphum’Ilanga is a project which used participatory arts methodologies to explore the issue of HIV/AIDS and the parallel pandemic of gender-based violence. This project was piloted in 2005 with the aim to raise awareness around the relationship between gender-specific violence in the transmission of HIV to women. The main target recipients of the project included the police, health professionals and counselors in order to provide a platform for the possible establishment of networks and working partnership amongst these agencies.

2006

Badilisha – supported by the City of Cape Town

Badlisha is a kiSwahili word that, used in various contexts, can refer to the exchange of ideas, the exchange of goods or to change. In our context we refer to the exchange of ideas as a process of mutual exchange, learning and growth.
Badilisha was a series of workshops held in Bonne Esperance Shelter for Refugees (the only shelter of its kind in Cape Town) from May - Oct 2006. The main objectives of this project were to use theatrical arts as means of conversing across cultural and national definitions. We see this as central to political, cultural and socio-economic development in South Africa because of the high number of immigrants and refugee population entering South Africa daily.
This project’s main objective was to use theatre as a means of conversing across cultural and national definitions. Given the relative political instability in the Great Lakes region due to civil wars, post-apartheid South Africa has become a new destination for refugees. Recent xenophobic attacks make this work all the more important in current South Africa.

2004-2005

Rite of Being – supported by HIVOS

The Rite of Being project endeavored to address issues related to invasive and disempowering rites of passage practices, as they affect women. This project sought to provide individuals and communities with the opportunity to explore and reassess existing rites of passage, and establish possible ways of making informed choices around negative aspects of these practices. The decision to address these issues collaboratively with the Kenya Female Advisory Organization (KEFEADO) underpins Mothertongue's objective of bridging the gap between South Africa and the rest of Africa beyond the SADC region.