MTN Bushfire is ready to welcome firestarters back to the festival from 27 – 29 May 2022 with its #BRINGYOURFIRE clarion call to ignite action for social change. The #BRINGYOURFIRE mandate guides the festival’s conscious and continuous efforts to promote tolerance and inclusivity and to challenge discrimination based on race, gender, sexuality or religion, or any other kind.
At the core of the #BRINGYOURFIRE philosophy is the festival’s continuous commitment to work with and uplift the Swazi community, through direct support and through providing platforms for creative advocacy to raise awareness and forums for dialogue that address burning social and environmental issues.
The MTN Bushfire 2022 Bring Your Fire Zone makes manifest this inspiring call to action. Within the Zone, various partners and festivalgoers actively engage to make a personal contribution and bring the festival’s commitment to social action and engagement to life. Festivalgoers can find out about innovations in sustainable lifestyles, and greener living; take part in the fun, thought-provoking activations; and join their voices to the inspiring discussions and talk-shops in the Bring Your Fire Zone.
The Bring Your Fire Zone is a collective responsibility space to discuss and promote awareness of crucial issues that impact our daily lives as well as our future, both locally and globally. Gender equality, sustainable energy, innovation, education, arts development, skills sharing, HIV and health, orphan mentorship support and community development all feature in this vitally important arena. The Bring Your Fire Zone is a space alive with activations and interactions throughout the three-day weekend of the MTN Bushfire festival. Partners from various organizations spark conversations about pertinent issues through their activations and stall displays.
Activation Spaces and Murals
This year’s Bring Your Fire Zone features a Mural Maze of visual art illustrating the concerns being addressed by the various groups activating in the Zone, all created by local muralists and visual artists. Festivalgoers are encouraged to explore the ways we can all make a meaningful personal contribution to a better world, by engaging with the activation spaces through quizzes, games, and discover how to support beneficial causes through social media engagement and digital messaging.
Some of the issues being tackled this year include minority rights, social diversity awareness, environmental and climate action for the youth, challenging gender roles and norms in social and familial contexts, human rights dialogue, HIV prevention, COVID vaccine and precaution awareness, positive social change in youth, and education initiatives on personal and group safety with regards to human trafficking and people smuggling.
The range of diverse organisations participating in the Bring Your Fire Zone include STEM Education, sharing the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math to developing a nation, whilst The Prevention of People Trafficking and People Smuggling Secretariat will educate festivalgoers on the different types of people trafficking and smuggling. Rock of Hope and COSPE will be celebrating queer identity, encouraging festival attendees to write and display messages of solidarity, while issues of gender and the prevalence of gender norms will be challenged by the Moya Center, which provides psycho-social support for young women and girls. NERCHA will be on site promoting HIV prevention and the continuing importance of using condoms, and PSA/USAID will provide educational materials on COVID-19 vaccines, HIV prevention and precautionary measures. Long-time MTN Bushfire beneficiary Young Heroes, which supports youth orphaned and made vulnerable through the ongoing HIV/Aids pandemic, will encourage positive social action through games, live-streaming and social media engagement, while boMake Rural Projects will be selling some fantastic merchandise to support their women’s and community empowerment initiatives. Following the successful first Green Round Table held in Eswatini, Hlumisa will bring their fire around environmental issues and climate change, supporting the festival’s on-going recycling and green initiatives.
Festivalgoers are all encouraged to Bring their Fire – their spirit, passion and energy to create positive change – to this inspiring and interactive creative advocacy space, then take a piece of the Bring Your Fire spirit home, promoting awareness around burning social and environmental issues that impact our daily lives and our future, both locally and globally, and igniting tangible action towards positive social and environmental change in your community.
For more information on MTN Bushfire visit: www.bush-fire.com
