Storytelling methods have been a source of inspiration for engaging youth and women in collaborative art and interventions. Youth Empowerment installation was constructed with UFISA project and Rlabs youth in Namibia during PDC14 (Participatory Design Conference) in Safari Court Conference Centre in Windhoek 6-10 October 2014. Vikki du Preez and other lectures from UFISA network participated in the project. The UFISA project brought together students and lecturers from the University of Botswana, University of Namibia, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Aalto University, and the University of Lapland around the themes of service design, usability, and empowerment. The aim of the installation was to discuss and identify themes and topics that were significant to the youth and create empowering stories around these themes. The important themes were discussed with the youth, and after discussion, the youth created stories using the identified keywords in a piece of string or yarn. After this, the yarns were connected together into an installation using more yarn, bamboo sticks, rubber bands, and paper. The project helped in creating collaborative shared understanding around the challenges that the youth are facing and processing these themes. Later on, I used a similar method with groups of women. Last autumn 2017, I worked with Penduka women in Katutura, Namibia, to discuss their dreams, challenges, and identify keywords to create empowering action with the women.

You can read more of the project at Nordes proceedings. Du Preez, V., Cilliers, R., Cheung-Nainby, P. and Miettinen, S. (2015). Envisioning Dreams with the Youth in Southern Africa. NORDES Nordic Design Research  conference Design Ecologies. Challenging anthropocentrism in the design of sustainable future. Konstfack – University College of Arts, Crafts and Design. Stockholm, Sweden 7.-10.6.2015. No 6 (2015): NORDES 2015: Design Ecologies, ISSN: 1604-9705

You can read about the project at PDC proceedings. Satu Miettinen, Vikki Du Preez, Shilumbe Chivuno-Kuria, and Hedvig Mendonca Ipito. 2014. My dream world 2: constructing the service prototype with Namibian youth. In Proceedings of the 13th Participatory Design Conference: Short Papers, Industry Cases, Workshop Descriptions, Doctoral Consortium papers, and Keynote abstracts – Volume 2 (PDC ’14). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 201–202.