We were lucky to catch up with Ndagire Joanita Joshirah recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ndagire thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

After coming back from Oman, my health kept on deteriorating, I decided to raise my voice to tell the world about modern day slavery.

One of the avenues I saw fit to use was arts, writing down scripts for skits, movies and songs to help tell the whole world about modern slavery and human trafficking.

It became so easy for me the spread awareness because people could easily understand while they watched the plays, skits, documentaries and films. Art is one avenue that makes an explanation of a 24 page slide presentation in 5 minutes, even less. There is a saying at home that if you want to hide anything from an African, put it in writing, It’s then better to make the hidden mysteries visible to our people through visual art.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am Ndagire Joanita Joshirah, a survivor of trafficking who took up a responsibility to tell the world about the modern day slavery and trafficking that is taking place in the modern world. I am an artist.

I am the founder Mwagale Foundation, an organisation I founded to create awareness, help survivors with their challenges, as well as make referrals on issues of trafficking where possible.

At Mwagale, we use art and other avenues to tell the world about modern day slavery, safe migration and human trafficking. We do documentaries, films and plays (skits). In the modern world, it’s visible that media and social media are the main sources that are use worldwide to disseminate information.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Helping someone to stay in school motivated my travel abroad to make sure this boy at lease gets education. He was a friend who met through a friend, turned sister we were staying with.
my application was to travel, work as a cleaner or receptionist or a supermarket attendant, as jobs were advertised. The first company I went to accepted the application and since it wasn’t me alone from the family applying, they decided to work on my passport as a bonus. I had gotten all the necessary signatures for my passport to be processed, what was remaining was the money. This company therefore was “doing me a favor” by paying express for my passport. To cut the story short, they tampered with my application papers, headlining my profession as “housemaid”. I did not dismiss that red flag so i just ran away from them. I got another company that literally sold me in slavery in disguise of labor externalization.

I cant tell how much money I was bought because i am one of the lucky ones who didn’t end up being made to pay back what they bought me with before they let me go. I was sick and totally useless to them so they saw it fit to let me go die near my people. Besides, they feared dead bodies were more expensive that me taking myself and die from home. the hard work and sleepless nights might have made my health bad per day because even when i came back, doctors could not understand or figure out what was wrong. I lived on pain killers, was in and out of the hospital, did a lot of tests but there was nothing. I used to have a lot of unexplained pain. I could not sleep for so many years because every part of my body was hurting. sop many times I prayed for death but couldn’t die. Before my death wishes, I had decided to speak out to save people from falling victim of what I fell into. That pain inspired my advocacy against trafficking up to today, focusing on telling people the truth, what happens to our women especially domestic workers in Arab countries.

I later was luck after many treatment measures taken by different doctors, I met a doctor through my friend who was able to realise that my nervous system and veins were the problem. That was 2022, december and from then, I never felt any much better. My advocacy was energised, I woke my dream to have an organistaion helping survivors though i didn’t know where to start. But I started anyway. Here I am today just waiting for the NGO status permit to fully be one. My organisation. Mwagale Foundation I really doing great things though still a baby, giving help and hope to survivors of trafficking as well as creating awareness through different aspects but mainly with art.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My own experience and life story. Pain gave me strength. I am what I am today because pain gave me resilience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mwagalefoundation.org/
• Instagram: @ndagirejoanitajoshirah
• Facebook: Ndagire Joanita Josh
• Linkedin: Ndagire (Joshirah) Joanita
• Twitter: @ndagirejjwrite1
• Youtube: Mwagale Foundation
• Other: Email: [email protected]
  [email protected]

Image Credits

Image credits: Mwagale Foundation
Ndagire Joanita