Creative Arts for Avoidable Deaths
The Avoidable Deaths Network collaborates with the Custodians of African Literature (COAL) to use literature, storytelling and creative arts as powerful tools for raising awareness about avoidable deaths.
The collaboration brings together disaster risk reduction, public health knowledge and African creative expression to communicate complex and often overlooked life-saving issues in accessible and human-centred ways.
Through poetry, short fiction, photography, film and other creative forms, COAL and ADN amplify the voices of African writers, artists and young people while encouraging public dialogue around the conditions that make deaths preventable.
Our Creative Approach
Storytelling
Turning evidence and lived experiences into stories that people can understand, remember and share.
Poetry
Using spoken-word poetry to communicate the human consequences of avoidable deaths and stimulate public discussion.
Visual Arts
Using photography, film and other visual forms to make overlooked risks visible and accessible to wider audiences.
Youth Voices
Creating opportunities for young African creatives to contribute to conversations around disaster risk reduction, public health and social action.
Advocacy
Transforming creative expression into a tool for awareness, education and advocacy.
Our Journey Together
2026 — Creative Arts, Awareness and Preparedness
On 7 April 2026, Patience Andrew of Custodians of African Literature joined Fatima Akter of the University of Dhaka for an episode entitled “Creative Arts, Awareness, and Disaster Preparedness in Africa and Bangladesh.”
The discussion explored how creative arts, education, early warning systems and community engagement can contribute to awareness, preparedness and social action to reduce avoidable deaths
2025 — Art4Life
In 2025, the collaboration expanded through Art4Life, a creative campaign inviting artists from across Sub-Saharan Africa to explore avoidable deaths through poetry, flash fiction and photography.
The campaign focused on the same four themes:
Maternal deaths
Snakebites
Silicosis
Drowning
Art4Life received 104 submissions from young creatives across five Sub-Saharan African countries, demonstrating the potential of creative expression to engage new audiences in conversations about avoidable deaths.
Held Too Briefly
The Art4Life campaign culminated in Held Too Briefly, an anthology bringing together poetry, flash fiction and visual art from African creatives.
The anthology explores the human stories behind four forms of avoidable death: drowning, maternal mortality, silicosis and snakebite.
Held Too Briefly was published as part of the International Awareness Day for Avoidable Deaths (IAD4AD) 2025, through a collaboration between COAL, the Avoidable Deaths Network and SEVHAGE Literary and Development Initiative.
Explore COAL’s Art4Life initiative
2024 — Poets for Avoidable Deaths
In 2024, COAL and the ADN launched Poets for Avoidable Deaths (P4AD), a campaign using spoken-word poetry to raise awareness about avoidable deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Four poets from Nigeria and Zambia explored four critical issues:
- Snakebite deaths
- Maternal deaths
- Silicosis deaths
- Drowning deaths
The campaign combined poetry, film and digital communication to bring these often-overlooked causes of death into public conversations.
People Behind the Collaboration
Patience Andrew
Founder, Custodians of African Literature (COAL) | ADN Regional Coordinator
Patience Andrew is a historian, spoken-word poet and radio broadcaster, and the founder of Custodians of African Literature (COAL), a non-profit organisation providing expressive and creative platforms for African writers and artists.Within the Avoidable Deaths Network, her work includes disaster education through art and poetry, monitoring and evaluation, development and capacity building.
Impact at a Glance
2024
426,000+ people reached through Poets for Avoidable Deaths
19 countries reached
4 avoidable-death themes explored through poetry and film
2025
104 creative submissions
5 Sub-Saharan African countries represented
3 creative disciplines
Read the IAD4AD 2024 Highlights Report
Read the IAD4AD 2025 Highlights Report
The Collaboration Continues
Through COAL and the Avoidable Deaths Network, creative expression is becoming an increasingly important part of the conversation around avoidable deaths.
By bringing together research, lived experience and African creative voices, the collaboration seeks to make risks visible, strengthen awareness and inspire communities to take action to prevent deaths that can be avoided.