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Joburg studio taps NFTs to drive autism awareness

Samuel Mungadze
By Samuel Mungadze, Africa editor
Johannesburg, 05 Apr 2022

To mark World Autism Month, Johannesburg studio MAAN Creative and non-profit organisation The Hedgie Fund have launched a month-long charity drive to raise awareness of the developmental disorder in SA, using non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The organisations say their desire is to show how technology can be used to drive social initiatives and change the lives of those in need.

Every April is World Autism Month, beginning with the United Nations-sanctioned World Autism Awareness Day on 2 April. This year marks the 15th annual World Autism Month.

Throughout the month, focus is placed on sharing stories and providing opportunities to increase understanding and acceptance of people with autism.

To support the initiative, MAAN Creative and The Hedgie Fund teamed up in using the blockchain technology to raise funds for Sam the Hedgehog, a locally-produced animated short film about autism acceptance.

The fundraising mechanism involves trading NFTs of the film’s sets, props and characters, and if successful, the local animation team will be the first to finish an animated short film funded by NFT minting.

The organisers want to get tech-savvy individuals involved, to support the autism community during Autism Awareness Month.

All proceeds raised through sales on The Hedgie Fund will be used to complete the film and give donations to autism-related charities and causes to help drive global autism acceptance.

“NFTs are digital representations of ownership of various items, with one of the most popular use-cases being to represent art,” explains Matt Landon, founder of The Hedgie Fund.

“Purchasers buy, sell and trade for a number of reasons, but rarely do NFTs fund real projects with real purpose. By purchasing a Sam ‘Hedgie’, collectors can become part of something meaningful that has intent and that raises awareness and funds for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Landon says the NFTs are available to mint throughout April.

“While only 8 128 NFTs will be available to mint, we could have had up to 1.9 million different variations. This, as we have created a host of different traits such as Sam’s ears, the props, glasses, etc, and each will be mixed and matched after assigning various rarity values to each trait.”

Worrisome numbers

In a statement, MAAN Creative and The Hedgie Fund say around one in 68 people are affected by ASD and it’s a condition that is of concern to the film’s creators.

“Sam the Hedgehog” – a short film using both stop motion and 2D tradigital animation – was conceptualised in 2014 to raise awareness of autism acceptance.

However, due to the extremely high cost of animation, the film is only partially complete, they note.

To finish the project and have it shown at film festivals around the world, its creators spotted an opportunity upon seeing how popular NFT trading has recently become.

Michael Clark, co-director at MAAN Creative, comments: “We realised that we could use the existing assets from the film, a mixture of hand-drawn characters and practical, hand-crafted sets, and engage those who are interested in NFTs and wish to support autism acceptance. Not only will the owners who mint our NFTs own a beautiful image, but they will also be linked to a real project and cause.”

Once fully financed, the final Sam the Hedgehog film will be around 12 to 14 minutes in length. It will first be shown on the international film festival circuit before being released online as a free public resource.

Rising tide

The blockchain-based cryptographic trend is increasingly drawing the interest of South African companies.

A number of NFT projects have been unveiled in the country, especially in the second half of last year.

Momint, a local online marketplace which allows artists to auction, sell, trade and display their art as NFTs, made its debut in May.

The platform enables South African creators – filmmakers, artists, musicians and sports people – to showcase and monetise their work and sell it directly to fans, using either normal currency or crypto-currency.

Another South African NFT marketplace, NFTFI, is also now allowing users to put up their NFT assets, like art, as collateral for a loan, or offer loans to other users on their NFTs. The start-up has a total loan volume of more than $12 million on its platform so far.

In November, the country pioneered the first rhino horn NFT auction, raising funds to protect rhinos.

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