Case Study: Muundo Foundation

Overview

Muundo Foundation is an art-driven advocacy and creative entrepreneurship nonprofit working at the intersection of culture, identity, and social justice, with a focus on people experiencing social exclusion — beginning with vitiligo.

I worked with Muundo Foundation across multiple years to design, structure, and operationalize digital-first programs and initiatives that transform lived experience into narrative authority, economic participation, and long-term institutional sustainability. My role combined program architecture, digital strategy, ethical storytelling frameworks, and the translation of cultural advocacy into scalable systems.

This work positioned Muundo not only as an advocacy organization, but as a producer of knowledge, culture, and community-governed digital value.

Context & Strategic Challenge

Organizations working with marginalized communities often face a recurring challenge:

• High visibility without control
• Stories extracted without benefit
• Digital engagement without sustainability
• Awareness without lasting power

In the context of vitiligo advocacy, these challenges are intensified by stigma, misinformation, and the global circulation of images and narratives detached from lived experience.

Muundo required more than campaigns. It needed durable digital programs that could:

• Shift narrative ownership
• Build community authority
• Enable ethical visibility
• Support alternative economic pathways beyond donor dependence

My Advisory & Design Role

I served as a strategic designer and implementation partner, working closely with Muundo's leadership and community to:

• Conceptualize and design original digital-facing programs
• Embed dignity, consent, and governance into digital participation
• Translate art-based advocacy into repeatable program models
• Support implementation of hybrid physical–digital initiatives
• Align advocacy work with long-term sustainability thinking

Core Programs Designed

1. The Visibility Economy Lab

Turning lived experience into digital power, income, and narrative ownership

People experiencing social exclusion are already visible — but rarely in control of how that visibility is produced, monetized, or politicized. Platforms extract attention, institutions frame narratives, and markets profit, while lived experience remains unpaid or misrepresented.

The Visibility Economy Lab was designed to equip participants to own, govern, and strategically deploy their visibility across digital platforms, cultural spaces, and global audiences.

This is not social media training.

It is a program about power, narrative control, and income in the attention economy.

2. Muundo Digital Dignity Network

Building leadership, authority, and ethical participation online

The Muundo Digital Dignity Network is a growing community of people experiencing social exclusion who are strengthening digital spaces through education, advocacy, and ethical storytelling.

Unlike conventional digital literacy initiatives focused on tools, this program centers:

• Authority
• Responsibility
• Dignity
• Leadership in digital participation

The Network positions participants not as beneficiaries, but as custodians of knowledge, culture, and narrative integrity.

3. The Muundo Cultural Data Commons

Reclaiming images, stories, and cultural data from extraction

Across media, research, development, and digital platforms, the images and stories of marginalized communities are routinely collected, circulated, and monetized without meaningful consent, ownership, or benefit.

The Muundo Cultural Data Commons was designed to flip the extraction model by advancing:

• Community governance of cultural data
• Ethical use frameworks
• Shared value creation
• Consent-driven circulation of narratives and images

Rather than data as raw material, this program positions cultural data as a collective asset with rights, rules, and value.

4. World Vitiligo Month: Digital Takeover

A global, coordinated attention intervention

Rather than isolated awareness activities, the Digital Takeover was designed as a narrative saturation strategy.

Each year during World Vitiligo Month, Muundo coordinates a month-long digital intervention ensuring that dignified, accurate, and human-centered narratives dominate digital and media spaces throughout the observance period.

The objective is not virality, but sustained narrative presence.

Key Initiatives & Implemented Projects

World Vitiligo Month 2022

Digital Takeover & Media Amplification

Uganda's first public participation in World Vitiligo Day marked a critical milestone. Working with Muundo (then The Part of Us Initiative), I supported an integrated physical and digital campaign grounded in art, public dialogue, and mass-audience outreach.

Key elements included:

• A public photoshoot as both creative intervention and education space
• Radio engagement on XFM Uganda reaching national audiences
• Cultural institution engagement, including Uganda National Gallery
• Digital circulation amplifying art, information, and myth-busting

This initiative laid the foundation for Muundo's Art & Cultural Advocacy program and established core principles still guiding the organization today:

• Visual amplification of lived experience
• Dignity-centered narratives
• Knowledge as a tool for sustained change

World Vitiligo Month 2023

Community-Owned Visual Messaging Campaign

This campaign focused on representation from within the community.

Professional photography, campaign design, and sustained digital circulation were developed using:

• Member-contributed imagery and narratives
• Campaign-grade visual assets
• Consistent messaging throughout the month

The emphasis was continuity over virality, reinforcing accurate narratives through repetition, quality, and dignity.

World Vitiligo Month 2024

Art, Dialogue, and Narrative Change

Muundo contributed to a landmark public convening at the British Council in Kampala, integrating:

• Live dialogue
• Artistic exhibition
• Panel discussions
• Livestreaming and media amplification

By centering lived experience, professional expertise, and artistic practice equally, the event demonstrated the power of multi-stakeholder, hybrid advocacy models.

World Vitiligo Month 2025

Innovation for Every Skin: Bridging Urban & Rural Visibility

This initiative expanded advocacy beyond Kampala, using Rukungiri District as a focal point while maintaining national and global digital reach.

The program combined:

• Artistic convenings
• Community health education
• Digital documentation
• Cross-regional exhibition and storytelling

It reinforced Muundo's commitment to inclusive, decentralized advocacy and demonstrated how digital strategy can connect local action to global narratives.

Global Storytelling Exchange: Muundo × Colorful Connections (USA)

This cross-continental collaboration connected vitiligo communities in Uganda and the United States through ethical digital exchange.

My role centered on:

• Community coordination
• Narrative curation
• Consent-based storytelling frameworks

Rather than one-directional awareness, the exchange prioritized reciprocity, dialogue, and learning across contexts, positioning Ugandan voices within international advocacy spaces.

Outcomes & Strategic Value

Across these programs and initiatives, the work resulted in:

• Digitally structured, repeatable advocacy programs
• Stronger narrative authority for people with lived experience
• Ethical frameworks for cultural data and storytelling
• Expanded national and international visibility
• Hybrid models combining art, dialogue, and digital systems
• Foundations for long-term sustainability beyond donor cycles

Relevance for Other Organizations

This case study is relevant for organizations working in:

• Advocacy and social justice
• Arts and culture
• Health and stigma reduction
• Creative entrepreneurship
• Community-led digital transformation

Especially those seeking to move from visibility without power to governed, dignified, and sustainable digital engagement.