Talent of Alex children on display at art exhibition

The talent which lies in the children from poverty-stricken Alexandra was amply demonstrated at a recent art exhibition, which also aimed to raise awareness of Unilever’s new BrightFuture Schools programme.

The exhibition raised awareness of the new programme by highlighting how the ambitions of South African children are sometimes beyond their reach, due to circumstances out of their control.

At Shine Studios in Johannesburg, guests were guided through a thought-provoking and inspiring art exhibition, created with the assistance of I See a Different You, a Soweto-based creative collective.

The exhibition was a showcase of the future dreams of young South African schoolchildren. It displayed portraits of schoolchildren from Carter, Skeen, Gordon, M.C Weiler and Emfundisweni primary schools in Alexandra, alongside drawings they had created of their dreams for the future.

Their ambitions ranged from becoming doctors and nurses to soccer players and astronauts.

The I See a Different You collective is known for its distinctive style and optimistic portrayal of South African people and stories. Justice Mukheli from the collective spoke about the member’s work on the exhibition. “We thought this would just be another shoot, but when we started working with the children, they really blew us away. They are so smart and so curious. They have such big ambitions. The experience reminded us of when we were young and encouraged us to stay youthful and inspired,” Mukheli said.

Unilever South Africa executive vice president, Peter Cowan outlined the importance of collective action within Unilever’s BrightFuture Schools programme which focuses on enhancing the education of schoolchildren. “Our vision is to create a bright future for all South Africans, reaching 15 million people by 2020,” he said.

“We can’t do that alone – our partnerships with Unicef and the Gauteng Department of Basic Education will allow us to scale up the work we’ve been doing to address some major problems and create an even bigger impact,” he said.

Gauteng MEC for Education, Panyaza Lesufi, who also attended the event said, “Through this partnership, we welcome the commitment of Unilever and Unicef in this endeavor.”

Unicef South Africa country director, Herve Ludovic de Lys said, “This is a journey that started two years ago with trust between two organisations that work together globally. Now we have moved from a transactional relationship to one that truly has the power to transform lives.”