Tinaye Agere
Online Reporter
On April 15, Zimbabwe joined the world to commemorate World Art Day 2023.
Proclaimed at the 40th session of UNESCO’s General Conference in 2019, World Art Day is a celebration to promote the development, diffusion and enjoyment of art.
UNESCO celebrates World Art Day to help reinforce the links between artistic creations and society, encourage greater awareness of the diversity of artistic expressions and highlight the contribution of artists to sustainable development.
In society, art also plays a critical role in raising hope and addressing issues like early child marriages, gender based violence (GBV), crime, drug abuse, health, gender equality among others.
In Africa, Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany has been empowering the art community, which is a critical partner to raise awareness about sensitive health and social issues.
In a statement, Merck Foundation said its pan African TV programme “Our Africa” addresses social and health issues through the ‘Fashion and Art community with Purpose’, a community created by their chief executive officer Senator Dr Rasha Kelej.
This pan African community has been established by Dr Kelej to raise awareness on sensitive health and social issues in Africa and beyond.
“Our Africa” has been broadcasted on prime TV stations of many countries like KTV in Kenya, NTV in Uganda, and GH One TV in Ghana and ZNBC in Zambia, AYV in Sierra Leone and LTV, Liberia, and it immediately captured the attention and hearts of millions of viewers across Africa. “Our Africa” TV Program will soon be broadcast on TV 3 in Ghana, BTV in Botswana, KTN in Kenya and QTV in The Gambia.
“I am very happy to be celebrating the ‘World Art Day 2023’, as I strongly believe that media, art and fashion play a very significant role in raising awareness on social and health issues and shaping the future development of our communities,” Dr Kelej said.
She added: “Art and fashion have a purpose much beyond entertainment and looking good. They can contribute towards sensitising communities about different social and health issues like ending child marriage, ending FGM, stopping GBV, breaking infertility stigma, supporting girl education and women empowerment and raise awareness about diabetes and hypertension and more.
“Hence, we engage with art communities through many of our initiatives and programmes like our TV program “Our Africa” and fashion, film and song awards, children storybooks, songs and more.”
Dr Kelej also said in Africa, art has a rich cultural legacy and history.
“We at Merck Foundation want to encourage the youth on the continent to make use of various forms of art to create an impact and awareness on critical and sensitive social and health issues. With this thought, we have launched – ‘Our Africa by Merck Foundation’ TV Programme to be the voice of the voiceless in Africa.
“This TV programme aims to break the silence about many social and health issues in our beloved Africa. Our aim with this TV programme is to create a culture shift in the communities by focusing on relevant and important social and health issues in Africa,” added Dr Kelej.
Merck Foundation together with their partners, the African First Ladies, also launched eight children storybooks with interesting graphics to address key social issues such as ending child marriage, stopping GBV, supporting girl education, breaking the infertility stigma, diabetes awareness etc.
The storybooks are Sugar free Jude, Mark’s Pressure, Jackline’s Rescue, Ride into the Future, Not Who You Are, Educating Linda and David’s Story.
“We have collaborated with cartoon artists from various African countries to come up with these children’s storybooks for our young readers and we will transfer them into animation,” explained Dr Kelej.
Merck Foundation has also launched over 30 songs on breaking infertility stigma, supporting girls’ education, and women empowerment, in English, French and Portuguese language.
Dr Kelej emphasised: “Music is a great medium to take the important and sensitive messages to the community. I have produced and directed songs with local artists to address the cultural perception of infertility and how to change it.”
She said more than 30 songs have been created in English, French, Portuguese and local languages in countries such as Sierra Leone, Kenya, Zambia, Ghana, Burundi, Rwanda, Gambia, Malawi, Liberia, Mozambique, Uganda.
Online Reporter