BERTHA CHALLENGE

An opportunity for activists and investigative journalists to spend a year deep-diving into one pressing social justice challenge.

BERTHA SPACES

Our network of urban hubs and rural retreats offer spaces for activists to work, connect, create, collaborate, organize and celebrate.

Community, Sustainability and Reciprocity

At Bertha we believe that providing sanctuary and space for organizations, movements and individuals most marginalized within society is a critical intervention in furthering their work towards social justice. This belief is underpinned by three facts regularly conveyed by our activist partners:

Activists and marginalized groups desperately need space but often find themselves excluded (by design). 

This exclusion – which largely plays out in intersectional, class and racialized terms – keeps working class and poor people from gathering together, growing together and organizing together.

Strategic impact is greatest when action is collective.

Opportunities for collaboration, creativity and solidarity are maximized when people come together in spaces from varied backgrounds, disciplines, fields, issues and geographies.

There is a magic that happens when people come together in space that is impossible to replicate.

A year of COVID lockdowns and travel restrictions have affirmed how important working and interacting with people in physical spaces can be. Remote communication will remain an important tool, but it will always have its limits. We fundamentally believe in the combined power of time and space to forge meaningful and lasting bonds between people, projects and places.

Bertha Retreat, Franschhoek Valley, South Africa

The Retreat is intended to be a transformative space where groups can gather to hold trainings, facilitate dialogues and work on campaign development. Alongside the venue, Bertha Foundation has established a fund that enables organizations within the Bertha Network – who may not have the resources to access such spaces – to convene at the retreat.

Bertha House, Cape Town, South Africa

Bertha House is more than a building. It’s about creating a vibrant community of people wanting to change the world – a space recognized locally & globally as a cutting-edge hub for collaboration and innovation in activism.

Our recently refurbished building with more than 2 000 m² of floor space is located in Cape Town, South Africa, in the historic, bustling and centrally-located Mowbray neighbourhood.

Bertha House will be filled with a diverse mix of activists including organizers, educators, storytellers and other changemakers united in their commitment to building a more just city, country and planet.

We aim to achieve this through the creation of inclusive, stimulating, safe and exciting spaces in which activists and groups can come together to work, organize, learn, create, collaborate and celebrate.

In 2021 Bertha House will launch an activist cowork community, expanded public events and activity spaces, a media and storytelling laboratory, a cinema and an eatery and food-justice hub.

PARTNER HIGHLIGHTS

Meet our Partners and learn more about the work they’re doing.

Bertha works to support storytellers and artists who challenge the dynamics of power and injustice.

We provide bespoke funding opportunities for individuals and organizations who use storytelling to build pathways to action against injustice. We also fund organizations that provide training and resources for people to tell their own stories, and we support accountability journalism and independent news.