Artists to launch Nice public trust
Culture, comedy and music will be the centre of attraction when Nice officially launches itself as a public trust on Saturday at Civo Stadium in Lilongwe.
Musicians Skeffa Chimoto, Black Missionaries and Ethel Kamwendo-Banda will come face to face with comedians Chindime ndi Samalani, Mr Jokes and a popular cultural troupe from Mua.
This is a major shift in terms of launches which are mainly concentrated in the comfy zones of hotel conferences rooms.
“We are doing it differently because our focus are the grass roots. Therefore, we want to celebrate with them through the performances. Doing it at a hotel will be restrictive in nature for us as we will not reach to as many people as possible,” explained Nice Public Trust executive director Ollen Mwalubunju.
Aside the entertainment aspect, there will also be role plays by staff members as well as testimonies on how Nice’s work has changed some individuals and communities.
“We will also take advantage of the presence of people who we know will be in large numbers to disseminate information especially voter education messages. The messages will 80 percent focus on tripartite elections and quality of good leaders,” he explained.
Among others, the new Nice brings with it resource centres in 31 key sites, reliable outlets of information through books which will be as innovative as possible to have messages in audio visuals, according to the executive director.
Nice was established as a European Union project in 1999 after a study revealed inadequate frameworks in Malawi for civic education following the attainment of democracy in 1994.
Aimed at contributing towards democracy, since 2011 Nice had been transforming from a project to a trust meaning it is now owned by Malawians. It was registered as a trust in 2012.
