Ogilvy Africa Launches “Give” to Support Creativity in Africa

Ogilvy Africa has launched Give, an initiative which aims to support the creative talents and help underprivileged youth in communities to gain the much needed creative skills. The initiative will comprise of approaches which include Give Time and Give Space.

Through Give Time, Ogilvy staff will dedicate time to teach and share creative skills and ideas with students. This will include areas such as creative writing, drawing, and photography.

On the other hand, Give Space will enable young artists who will be selected based on their potential and the depth of their message exhibit their art in Ogilvy offices, according to them an opportunity to showcase their skills and ideas.

Speaking at the launch event yesterday, Ogilvy CEO Mathieu Plassard said that Give is an initiative by Ogilvy Africa that seeks to support young African artists to believe in their dreams. He added that the initiative is in line with Ogilvy’s three pillars: actions that are human-centered, an innovative audacity and actions that matter.

“In our line of work, we meet extraordinary talents in the streets or in an art gallery every day. With Give, we want to give back to the communities who inspire us. We want to offer these creative minds our expertise and a platform to express their imagination. This program is in line with Ogilvy’s core values and enables us as a creative agency to tell these young artists: what you have is precious and your point of view is unique,” added Mr. Plassard.

Starting this month, Lemek Tompoika, a young Kenyan artist influenced by his Maasai culture will exhibit his art on the walls of Ogilvy’s offices in Nairobi.

Give will first be implemented in Ogilvy Africa’s headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya and in Dar-Es-Salaam in Tanzania, Accra in Ghana, Lagos in Nigeria and Lusaka in Zambia.  In Nairobi, volunteers from the agency will teach at Koinonia School where students come from the Kibagare slum in the Western part of the city. The project will enable students who come from single-parent families with very low income to communicate their emotions and tell their own stories through art.