Introduction:

From November 8th to 13th, the University of Global Health Equity will host the inaugural edition of Hamwe Festival in Kigali, Rwanda. The annual event will celebrate and encourage the contributions of the creative industries in the global health field.

The festival will host a concert with Grammy award-winning singer Oumou Sangare, as well as a visual art exhibition, various talks on arts and global health, and will close with a night dedicated to the role of dance in global health. Learn more here.

Hamwe Talks 

Hamwe Talks will engage the public of Kigali in a conversation about the role of arts in health. Health professionals and artists will discuss how they have used arts to generate better health outcomes. 

When: November 12th @ 6:30PM

Where: Kigali Cultural Village

Master of Ceremony (MC): Ariane Inkesha, writer and regional officer at Interpeace.

Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana, Director General of Rwanda Biomedical Center

In addition to being a medical doctor and a leader in the Rwandan Health sector, Dr. Sabin is a martial arts professional. He will share about his experience teaching Karate and medication and the impact of these activities on health.

Yagazie Emezi, Documentary photographer

Yagazie Emezi is an artist and self-taught documentary photographer from Aba, Nigeria focused on stories surrounding African women and their health, sexuality, education and rights.  She began her journey in 2015 and has since worked with Al-Jazeera, New York Times, National Geographic, Vogue, Newsweek, Inc. Magazine, TIME, The Guardian, Everyday Projects, The Weather Channel and New York Times Magazine.

After ten months in Monrovia, Liberia documenting the impact of education for girls in at-risk communities, Yagazie returned to her ongoing project “Re-learning Bodies”, which explores the process by which people reclaim their bodies. This project studies the fragility and endurance of the human form and the acceptance of self within African communities by examining how environment and socioeconomic class influence an individual’s psychological adjustment to their new, scarred bodies, while marking the absence of an effusive culture around body positivity as a noteworthy cultural phenomenon.

This exhibition will be on display at the event.

Sharon Kalima, Program Coordinator at the Arts and Global Health Center Africa and 2019 UN SDG action award winner. 

Sharon Kalima is passionate about women empowerment and is an advocate for gender equity in Malawi, with a strong interest and track record in sexual and reproductive health for women and young girls.  Sharon will speak about participative arts and community health.

Judith Kaine, Founder and Director of Kurema Kureba Kwiga

Judith Kaine is a social entrepreneur and founder of the social enterprise Kurema Kureba Kwiga, which uses art to promote public health and social issues. Judith will talk about her work in Kigali with her organization.

Winnie Chelagat and Gulraj Grewal, Global Health Disrupted

Winnie and Gulraj will speak on the role of film in global health, using the MAMA Film project as an example of how film can be participatory and engaging in the most challenging of circumstances, such as women’s health in rural Kenya. 

Didi Bertrand and Coralie Noisette  from the Women and Girls initiative

Didi Bertrand and Coralie Noisette, representing Partners In Health and the Women and Girls Initiative, will talk about how the arts have been a powerful tool for their organization’s mission empowering adolescent girls and young women.

Dr. Paul Animbom Ngong, Chair of the Department of Performance and Visual Arts at the University of Bamenda

Dr. Paul Animbomb Ngong is an expert in therapeutic theater. He will speak about the use of acting as therapy for personal and social development.

Christopher Bailey, World Health Organization

Christopher Bailey will perform “Stage 4: Global Stories on Empathy and Health,” which will take us on a journey through space and time, from HIV clinics in Kenya, to a Liberian slum during the 2014 Ebola epidemic, to oncology wards in Switzerland, and to ancient Greek theatres to bring to life real stories of this primal human ability and the emerging science behind it.  When we say ‘art can heal’, what do we mean by that?  In answering that question, we touch on the very foundations of what it means to be human, and perhaps, how we can survive as a species. Stage 4 has been performed at the Wellcome Trust, The World Health Organization, Oxford University, Pace University, New York University, UN HQ in New York, in Amsterdam at a meeting of international film and television production companies, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and recently, at the Warner Bros. studio in Hollywood.