Our Origin
Itirele was born in 2022 from the Crafts Abilities programme, a series of research projects with the Southern African Federation of the Disabled, SAFOD, in collaboration initially with Loughborough University and Aston University and continued with Loughborough University. The projects were funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK, and the Newton Fund, via Loughborough University.
Dr George Torrens and Dr Simon Downs of Loughborough University have worked closely with the SAFOD team of led by Mussa Chiwaula, Ashllah Mmusi, Banthati Tshekoetsile, and the Kgatleng Disabled people Association, led by Shadrek Shadreck Ndlovu. If you would like to know more about the Crafts Abilities project, please visit our webpage: Project 1
SAFOD
This project seeks to collaborate on knowledge exchange and gaining more insights into the needs of people with impairments and disability to enable them to contribute to their community through the production of art and craft artefacts. This first network phase will be about building connections between those involved in inclusive crafts.
If you would like to know more about the Southern African Federation of the Disabled, SAFOD, please go to our website.www.safod.net