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DR SAVO HELETA REPRESENTS DUT AT THE 2022 WE MAKE FUTURE DIGITAL AND SOCIAL INNOVATION FESTIVAL IN ITALY

DR SAVO HELETA REPRESENTS DUT AT THE 2022 WE MAKE FUTURE DIGITAL AND SOCIAL INNOVATION FESTIVAL IN ITALY

Dr Savo Heletaan Internationalisation Specialist in the International Education and Partnerships (IEP) Directorate at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), recently attended the We Make Future (#WMF2022) Digital and Social Innovation Festival, held in Rimini, Italy. 

Speaking about his experience at the festival, Dr Heleta indicated that this year was the 10th edition of the annual We Make Future Festival and the focus was on exploring the world of innovation through educational, cultural, music, business, networking and entertainment talks, engagements and events.  

“This is one of the largest and fastest-growing annual digital and social innovation gatherings in Europe. In 2021, there were more than 24,000 participants over three days. In 2022, more than 36,000 participants attended the three-day festival,” he explained. 

Dr Heleta revealed that he was invited to give a talk on the #WMF2022 mainstage, focusing on climate change and a new global citizenship. He felt honoured to be part of the mainstage talks as these are the flagship events at the festival, with thousands of people in the audience. 

His talk was on 16 June 2022, where he engaged with Dr Siyabulela Mandela, a South African human rights activist and speaker who works for a Canadian media development organisation ‘Journalists for Human Rights’, managing their projects in Southern and East Africa.  

Dr Mandela and I had another engagement at the WMF Youth stage, where we engaged with two Italian journalists on the issues of conflict, human rights and climate change globally, and the role of young people in advocating for a just transition and climate justice. Apart from the speaking engagements, I also gave an extensive interview to a journalist from la Repubblica, one of Italy’s leading newspapers. We covered issues of climate change, the need for climate justice, and the urgency of campaigning for a just transition,” added Dr Heleta.

He is proud to announce that DUT was the only South African University to have a representative/speaker at the #WMF2022. For Dr Heleta, attending and speaking at the #WMF2022 provided numerous opportunities for networking with activists, academics, innovators, University students, journalists and other participants.

Noting what his invitation and attendance of this prestigious event meant for DUT, he said: “Speaking at the event and engaging with the media also provided an opportunity to profile DUT and the work we do in the International Education and Partnerships Directorate and across the University in the higher education, internationalisation, international collaboration and promotion of social justice in a highly unequal world.”  

Dr Heleta also highlighted his most notable engagement at the festival was meeting and engaging in-depth with Linda Sarsour, a leading Palestinian-American social justice, civil rights and racial justice activist, and author. He stated that she was one of the speakers who opened the event, and also engaged on the mainstage on the issues of human rights and social justice around the world. 

To view Dr Heleta’s engagement with Dr Mandela go to:  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lYjolXkXplM

To read more on Dr Heleta’s international interview with the la Repubblica newspaper, visit:

https://www.repubblica.it/green-and-blue/2022/06/20/news/savo_heleta_migranti_climatici-354755686/

Pictured: Dr Savo Heleta with Dr Siyabulela Mandela at the #WMF2022.

Simangele Zuma 

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