Publications
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Akhona’s Journey
Akhona's Journey takes her through many traumatic experiences, including betrayal by someone she trusted. Will anyone step up for her as she faces life or death decisions? Find out in this seven-part animated video series and story book. Buy the book and receive a free resource pack for educators.
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Tell me about the Changes in my Body
Tell Me About the Changes in My Body is a book to help children and adults have positive conversations about puberty and adolescence. Written in plain language, by Saranne Meyersfeld and Deborah Ewing, it features light-hearted illustrations, to convey key ideas and concepts. It shares facts about every aspect of puberty with positive messages about inclusion, diversity, body image and celebration of change. The book is focused on children aged 9-14 years but the content is useful for older adolescents, parents, caregivers, health and social workers, and educators. Talking about sexual development can be awkward. Not talking about it can be extremely harmful.
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Confronting violence against LGBTIQ+ people in African contexts
Agenda is a journal published by Agenda Feminist Media in South Africa. The peer-reviewed journal was established in 1987. It airs dialogue and debate between academic gender researchers, activists within the women’s movement and broader civil society. It is also committed to developing scholarship and mentoring emerging writers in the field. Deborah has contributed to several issues over the years and guest edited two, including Volume 34, Issue 2 (2020) on the theme of addressing violence against people who do not confirm to sexual and gender norms in Africa.
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Strangers in a faraway land
‘Once upon a time of fear and sorrow, the children of my village were woken suddenly in the night. We heard screaming and shouting. Our world turned upside down. Lightning and thunder came from the ground and fire came from the sky… We crossed a river to a faraway land. The grass was green and the leaves of the maize whispered our arrival…’ Deborah’s short story Strangers in a Faraway Land was selected for inclusion in the Heartlines Stories that Talk 2 collection for children aged 8-13 years in 2010. It is a fable about seeking refuge and about the experience of empathy and othering in exile. This story, like…
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Secret Celebrity
‘ ‘Fourteen-year-old Ana is brought illegally to South Africa from Mozambique. She is frightened but hopeful that she will find a job to help support her family. Instead, she finds herself imprisoned in an isolated house, forced to clean and do laundry. When she hears that she is going to be sold as a ‘wife’, Ana makes a daring escape. She befriends Zandi and her family and faces new challenges in an unfamiliar school. But when Ana goes looking for her father, and Zandi follows, they end up in worse trouble than they could ever have imagined.’ Secret Celebrity is a teen novel published by Hodder Education in 2010. It…
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Every Right for Every Child
‘Everywhere we go, our presence is felt’ Every Right for Every Child: Governance and Accountability. Ed Enakshi Ganguly. Routledge. 2011 The chapter was based on my work on children’s participation in governance with the non-government organisation Institute for Democracy in South Africa. The project mentored children from across South Africa, including children with disabilities, to undertake budget analysis and participate in government consultation processes. The book drew on experiences of children’s own advocacy for their rights from around the world. Buy a copy
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Animal Health Promotion
The Mdukatshani Rural Development Project in Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, has been providing farmer support and training for more than 50 years. Children and young people play an important role in livestock care and Mdukatshani has developed programmes to facilitate their involvement. These started with story-telling to enable children to document their knowledge, ideas and experiences of caring for chicken, goats and cows. Over several years, bi-lingual (English and Zulu) illustrated books were co-created with the children to share these stories. The books are used in several schools in Animal Health Promotion Clubs. They support a range of learning outcomes and affirm children’s expertise in agriculture . …
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Siyaphi – where are we going?
‘We lost homes… We lost graves… We lost our harvest… We lost grazing land… We lost ourselves.’ Limehill residents recalling the forced removals of 1968 Imagine being 11 years old and going home from school on Friday, repeating over in your head the message that you must give your mother: ‘Ma, the teacher says on Monday we must be … This 2018 publication was the product of research to revisit the impact of apartheid forced removals on a community that won back their land but have not recovered the livelihoods or the identity they lost 50 years ago. The research was a partnership between a university and the community of…
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Cultural Responses to Sexual Realities
This is one of a series of research briefings produced to support advocacy for sexual and reproductive health rights by the AIDS Foundation of South Africa. Ewing co-designed the research and was the series editor in her capacity as Advocacy Manager for the programme. The research was a collaboration between activists and academics to provide evidence for interventions at community level across Eastern and Southern Africa. Research and advocacy are a strong component of work to support the Sex Rights Africa Network of civil society organisations.
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The Secret Thread: Personal journeys beyond apartheid
The Secret Thread: Personal journeys beyond apartheid, published by Unisa Press, South Africa, as part of its Hidden Histories Series, is a social history reflecting on the power of travel. The book brings together the experiences of some of the more than 300 people who received small grants to travel beyond the barriers created by apartheid, between 1964 and 1994, to see their own and other communities in a different light. The study tours were made possible by the Christian Fellowship Trust (CFT), co-founded by Dr Beyers Naudé in 1964. The CFT, a ‘legally subversive’ organisation, drove a ‘Trojan Horse’ into the citadel of apartheid theology. The CFT recognised travel…
