Mobile cinema is the Shap Shap way to learn
THE community of Hammarsdale in Mpumalanga township will benefit from a mini cinema launched recently with the aim of screening educational tutorials to locals.
The project was launched by Shap Shap Cinemas, a nonprofit company which has been providing similar mobile education screenings in KwaZuluNatal for three years, all out of its own pocket.
Bianca Ivankovic, a chef by profession and one of Shap Shap’s founders, says she first realised the need for the mobile cinema service when she ran a feeding scheme for communities in KwaNyuswa and Botha’s Hill.
“It was while working with our gogos (grannies) and malumes (uncles) that we realised the need for information and understanding on health topics in traditional vernacular.
“So we created our own educational video tutorials in Zulu.
“Our mission is to educate and uplift under-served communities by creating educational content in Zulu that best covers the topics which people living in these areas are interested in learning about,” said Ivankovic.
South Africa is among the top most illiterate countries in the world, which makes education for people who cannot read a difficult task, she added.
“Shap Shap Cinemas aims to provide a progressive means of education, using audiovisual content to educate its audience in their home language.”
Over the years the need for different types of information has arisen, such as tutorials about early childhood development ( ECD), high school tutoring, CV and interview preparation, entrepreneurship, nutritious cooking demonstrations, how to prevent or live with HIV/Aids, sanitation awareness, TB awareness, unemployment insurance fund application, sex education and antenatal awareness.
The organisation enlists experts, including doctors, nurses, entrepreneurs and business people, to help them create the tutorials.
They shoot and edit the footage and take these via their mobile cinema to communities in KwaNyuswa, Botha’s Hill and Hammarsdale.
They set up “movie houses” at schools, community centres, town halls and churches to show the tutorials.
“Essentially we move in our car (which is on loan from a friend) with a laptop, projector and screen. We set up and host the screening. It is all free of charge; the communities just have to come through.
“Occasionally, we can carpool people to the screening if they are disabled or too sick to make the journey to the venue,” says Ivankovic.
In Hammarsdale, City Logistics, a company based in the community, shared the NGO’s vision and helped with costs for a shipping container to be converted into a permanent cin- ema for the area. The facility has theatre seating, projection facilities and an air conditioner.
“This is the first cinema of its kind in the community. It is designed to accommodate 25 adults. Children’s numbers will vary depending on age.
“We have two other permanent sites already secured in KwaNyuswa and near Shongweni, but we need to secure sponsors for the shipping containers and conversion costs for that to be made possible,” says Shap Shap co-founder Stefano Horning.
Because they do not have a sponsor or a vehicle for the NGO, and do everything out of their own pockets – including supplying food and paying their community volunteers a stipend – it has been an upstream swim at times.
Ivankovic says: “We found that those who attended the tutorial screenings were often in need of different things, like food or basic medical care. So alongside our screenings you will find that we have feeding schemes, clinic services via our in-house nurse, and we’ve started vegetable gardens where communities can grow food to take home. Initially it was all about education, but how can you educate and then send someone home hungry? So we’ve adapted to the needs of the communities.”
The Hammarsdale cinema is based outside the Sizakala Centre on Shezi Main Road.