Miraisha: inspiring futures, shaping livelihoods

When we learn, it’s more than just absorbing knowledge. In our experience, people begin with the idea of a new skill or expertise in mind, but often find, on the journey, they discover new things about themselves too. It’s something we’ve seen time and again throughout the ten years of our Miraisha Programme – thousands of young people realising just how capable, creative and driven they are.

Even the name of the programme acknowledges that it’s not just what Miraisha students learn, but where they take these new skills. It’s a melding of the Japanese word ‘mirai’, meaning ‘future’, and the Swahili word for ‘livelihood’ – ‘maisha’. Together they speak of potential and success. Which is precisely the spirit in which Miraisha was founded. But it existed before it had a name, in a fashion.

Back in early 2014, we learnt that many of our Canon Ambassadors were also keen educators who were keen to give back to the communities they worked in – often conflict zones and less developed countries. Especially those where young people had limited opportunities for education and career development. So, it made sense for us to support them in using these important skills. Our then Ambassador Programme Manager, Katie Simmonds, began to explore how this could happen and visited Kenya, looking at ways and locations in which we could hold workshops.

“A lot of our Ambassadors had already worked in the region,” explains Katie. “And there are so many interesting stories to be told. And yet too few Africans were telling their own stories.” This knowledge was more than enough reason for the team to organise their first session, giving young photographers in Nairobi the chance to be trained by a professional, then go out and shoot stories which have meaning to them. This formed the blueprint and foundation of the Miraisha Programme, and no one could have predicted how it would grow and the impact it would make on lives, communities and African storytelling.

Helping students to look beyond the now is what we strive to do, so partnerships and collaborations have always played an important part in the Miraisha story. From the very beginning, we forged ties with organisations such as the Uganda Press Photo Awards, Addis Foto Fest in Ethiopia and Ghana’s National Film & Television Institute, reaching new creative voices through workshops, mentorships and access to our cutting-edge technologies.

Over time, young Africans began seeing Miraisha at high profile events, such as Lagos Fashion Week and Abuja International Film Festival in Nigeria, where workshops and seminars were held to support young people wishing to enter these competitive fields. But perhaps our most novel partnership is that with Nrb Bus, a film company in Kenya based out of an old London bus! Now Canon branded, it hosts free training on a range of disciplines, from pure photography to storytelling, script writing and creating content for social media.

Miraisha has also been taking advantage of the professional kit and on-site editing and print studio at the Canon Experience Centre at the Maasai Mara National Reserve. Here we could bring training and mentorship to Maasai Guides, adding new imagemaking capability to their already deep knowledge of the local ecology. Importantly, Maasai women are encouraged to take part in Miraisha workshops, creating new opportunities as tour guides in a community where access to education has traditionally been limited for women and girls. Anne Tumpesia, a Miraisha graduate and guide now dreams of becoming a photojournalist, sharing stories of The Mara through a female lens, as well as passing her skills onto the next generation of women and girls in her community.

Ten years on, the number of success stories speak for themselves. But, of course, it’s not numbers that make Miraisha special. It’s the way in which everyone – students, educators, colleagues, partners and collaborators – has poured their hearts into the programme, extending its reach beyond anything we could have imagined in 2014. Our trainers, for example, were initially Canon Ambassadors, but we quickly realised that we needed more people if we were going to grow and meet our ambitions for Miraisha. So, the ‘Train the Trainer’ initiative began.

The year-long Certified Canon Trainer qualification takes commitment but has no shortage of people who want to nurture careers and create lasting industry change by sharing their knowledge and skills with the next generation. Today there are 22 fully certified Canon trainers living and working across Africa. In this and every respect the Miraisha programme holds to its name, keeping those ‘future livelihoods’ in sharp focus with every new workshop, partnership and trainer.

The Miraisha Scholarships demonstrate this perfectly. Ten students from Nairobi’s Mathare community showed exceptional promise but Mathare is known for its socio-economic challenges and further formal education was simply out of their reach. For us, there was too much talent at stake, and we were overjoyed to be able to support their attendance at KCA University to study for a Certificate in Film Technology. Because while learning begins with the individual, when we lift each other up, everyone wins.

We are immensely proud that over 7,000 young Africans have benefited from Miraisha to date, and we keep a close eye on our students’ many successes. Some are award-winning photographers and filmmakers. Many are accomplished photojournalists with enviable portfolios. Plenty have started their own thriving businesses. A few have even joined Canon both as trainers in the field and part of our office-based team. All are changing the story for African creatives and blazing a trail for those who follow.

“Ten years in, the Miraisha programme is having the impact we dreamed of,” says Katie, who is now Education Programmes Manager at Canon Central & North Africa. “Impact in supporting the development of the creative industries in Africa, but – more importantly – on young lives. It opens doors that were previously closed and puts the narrative of Africa into the hands of young African storytellers.”

Learn more about the work of our Miraisha Programme.