Sarakasi Trust/Sawa Sawa Festival

Sarakasi Trust responds to the need for the further development and promotion of culture, performing arts and entertainment in East-Africa. Sarakasi focuses on acrobatics, dance and music and this way strives to empower its trainees and contracted artists creatively and economically.

Sarakasi provides social development, training and capacity building and cultural awareness programs, and implements special programs such as the Talanta training (involving blind and deaf performing artists), the Hospital Project (bringing edutainment to hospitalized children and children in homes and remand homes), monthly musicians workshops, artist agency activities and the implementation of its own cultural agenda at the Sarakasi Dome.

Regular features on its cultural agenda are Friday evening events providing a platform to Sarakasi artists, deejays, Emcees and musicians, a monthly open mike Hip Hop event, a bi-monthly dance-circus fusion evening event and the annual Sawa Sawa multi disciplinary Festival. Through these programs and activities it gives its affiliated artists tools to manage their art, lives and careers more effectively and successfully.

In addition, the Trust aims to present the best of Kenyan creativity to the widest possible audience by organizing cultural exchanges, local and international performance contracts and tours.

Sarakasi employs 32 staff on a full time basis, reaches over 1,000 young people on a weekly basis in its (training) outreach programs, trains about 100 people at the Sarakasi Dome on a weekly basis and reaches thousands with its audience building activities. Furthermore, Sarakasi Trust actively participates in six partner networks.

For more information: www.sarakasi.org