In August 2024, Laura Ganza, Programme Manager for Zimbabwe and Belgium, travelled to Harare and Bulawayo to meet with our partners. With Africalia's program in Zimbabwe ending at the end of this year, it was an opportunity to take stock with partners of relations with Africalia and the continuation of their activities.
She was thus able to meet four key partners of the PPA 2022-2026: the three performing arts schools supported in Harare, Afrikera Arts Trust, Music Crossroad Academy, and Zimbabwe Theater Academy, as well as Nhimbe Trust, an organization based in Bulawayo that mainly advocates for cultural policies and freedom of expression.
Our program manager had not only the chance to meet Marie-Laure Soukaina Edom, the founder and director of the Afrikera Arts Trust dance school but also the teachers and students at the graduation ceremony. You will find here a glimpse of this magnificent ceremony. She was also able to visit the creative spaces of Music Crossroad Academy where she was also able to attend the end-of-year recital, as well as the Zimbabwe Theater Academy.
In Bulawayo, she visited Nhimbe Trust, with whom the partnership was closed at the beginning of this year. It was an opportunity to discuss the transition and phasing out of Africalia and to discover the new offices where the Nhimbe team will soon move. With larger offices, which also have agricultural land and residential spaces, they hope to diversify their income and increase their financial independence.
Finally, this visit was an opportunity to organize a training in resource mobilization, given by Culture Funding Watch. With the departure of Africalia, the question of the financial sustainability of our partners in Zimbabwe arises. This training aimed to provide tools to better think about the diversification of income and fundraising for cultural organizations.
