Dear Friends, Family and Supporters of Amazwi,

Due to the economic crunch and Amazwi’s ongoing difficulties in obtaining reliable funding, we have decided to close all Amazwi projects in 2009.  During this time, however, Amazwi’s founder Maggie Messitt who is still based in rural South Africa will be looking for donors to assist in funding journalism scholarships and professional development grants.

It is our hope that during 2009, we will be able to gather a small amount of funding so to assist the Amazwi School of Media Arts 2007 graduates and the Amazwi Villager Journalism Internship Program Participants (2008) with further professional development.  This can be in the form of conference, further coursework, or funding a long-term writing project.

Please e-mail Maggie Messitt to learn more about how you can help give further voice to the women of Amazwi.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us in the past from companies like BigFoot Productions, The International Academy of Film and Television, and Thanda Private Game Reserve -to- organizations like The Lonely Planet Foundation and the Media Development & Diversity Agency.  Without their help and the generous donations of private individuals in the US, South Africa, Australia, Hong Kong, and the UK, we would never have accomplished as much as we have.

And a special thanks to all of our volunteers (2005-2008) — on-site and virtual — for giving of your time, resources, and self.  Amazwi has been a unique volunteer-driven organization.  We and the benefactors of Amazwi have gained so much from you personally and professionally.  We hope you feel you’ve received as much in return -and- taken a little part of South Africa with you back to your home country.

We hope to find our way back again, helping African women raise their voices and find platforms from which to share those voices, in the future…

-The Amazwi Team.