SDG Action Campaign: FAF, BFI and Others Build ‘Army’ of Young Change Makers through the Creative Sector

A cross section of children during one of the classes in module 1 of the training series in February, 2020, at the National Museum, Benin City.

 

                “If you want to change a nation, change the youths” – Rev. Oje Ohiwerei

Between May 2 and May 4, 2019, the United Nations (UN) hosted the Cartoon Africa International Biennial (CAIB) traveling cartoon campaign on SDGs at the exhibitions zone of the 2019 edition of the “Global Festival of Action for Sustainable Development” which held at the World Conference Center in Bonn (Germany).

 After featuring in the UN SDG global festival in May, 2019, the CAIB initiative was certified by the UNDP as an official SDG Action Partner. Then the need to scale up the CAIB SDG cartoon campaigns across Africa for better engagements and greater impact arose. Today, the Francodus Art Foundation (FAF) is leading the 10-year strategic “CartoonAFRICA SDGs ArtivismWritivism Training Series” for African children and youths.

“At least ten thousand African children and youths are targeted to be engaged, empowered and positively involved in the fight to secure Africa of the future (and the rest of the world), through simple tangible Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) actions by the year 2030”, says Francis Umendu Odupute, initiator and curator of the growing ‘Cartoon Africa International Biennial (CAIB) festival’ which debuted on November 23, 2012, at White Space, Ikoyi, Lagos State, Nigeria.

“It’s true that creativity, curiosity and critical thinking skills go hand in hand with knowledge, and encouraging the use of projects and creativity enhances children’s learning capabilities and thinking capacity overall. We’re leveraging technology innovations for artistic expressions, creative education and children/youth literature development, to strategically involve children and young people in the fight to securing Africa of the future through the creative sector”, Odupute says.

 By their increased awareness and proactive participation, beneficiaries of the CartooonAFRICA SDGs ArtivismWritivism project is expected make unprecedented juvenile contributions in attitudes and behavior changes amongst young people in Africa, especial in the fights against development challenges such as human trafficking, illegal migration, drug abuse, cultism, gender violence, environmental degradations, poor sanitation and hygiene cultures/attitudes, etc. in the context of achieving the United Nation’s vision 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using children/youth-made and children/youth-focused artistic expressions and multimedia contents/creative solutions.

The project aims to foster the development and patronage of indigenous Afrocentric children and young adult literature and multimedia contents; build children’s creative thinking, moral capital development and emotional intelligence; promote reading culture cum academic excellence, basic leadership and entrepreneurial skills development; cultural reclamation in line with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Odupute says he totally agrees that to meet the SDGs, everyone must take action - no matter how small or simple - hence his decision to seek novel ways he could collaboratively make a tangible contribution in advancing the global movement for the Sustainable Development Goals in the most creative, wholesome, inclusive, transformative, impactful and innovative way that gainfully carries young people along.

 The training series is made up of 12 modules, with each module lasting up to one month, including take-home assignments and class works plus online training, Qs & As. The module on comedic art therapy alone promises young people a lot, including: How to build and boost your confidence and self-esteem; How to enjoy the benefits of creative art therapy on your emotional and physical wellbeing; How to use art and humour to captivate and express how awesome and brilliant you are; How to enjoy art as a family; enhancing communication via art and graphic humour; how to improve concentration, retentive memory , and how to develop your emotional intelligence/literacy and social skills.

Francis Umendu Odupute, initiator and lead resource person for the CartoonAFRICA SDGs artivismWritivism Training Series, explains a point on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to the children at the national Museum, Benin City, on February 15, 2020.

 

CartoonAFRICA SDGs ArtivismWritivism is facilitated by FRANCODUS ART FOUNDATION (FAF), the BEAUTIFUL FEET INTERNATIONAL KREATIV BRAINZ KLUB (BFIKBK), AFRICAN PRESS CARTOON Company, and other implementing collaborators. The project is a collaborative agenda to deploy artistic expressions, creative education and digital technology skills/knowledge transfer to empower young people economically across Africa while involving them in the global efforts to meet the SDGs.

The Education Unit of the National Museum, Benin City, is collaborating with the organizers as host of the training series in Benin City, having found the project very relevant to their museum education efforts to creatively interface and engage with the children and young people of its host community.

If the funding needs are met, the strategic “CartoonAfrica Traveling SDG Cartoon Campaigns/ArtivismWritivism training series” is expected to tour various cities, towns and communities across Africa to engage, empower and involve young people across Africa in broadening audience engagement and stirring up SDG actions by young people until 2030 when the CAIB SDG action project comes to its climax.  Updates, inquiries, sponsorship and participation information on the project can be found by frequently visiting: www.mediabfi.blogspot.com; or email: mediabfi@gmail.com