| |
 S.A.F.E. is a charity that uses theatre, combined with community activities and education, to deliver life-saving information about HIV/AIDS in the most under-served areas in Kenya. S.A.F.E. is a mobile organisation, taking performance, education and vital HIV information to communities in neglected areas that do not have access to services or conventional means of information dissemination (i.e. public health television or poster campaigns). All of S.A.F.E.'s performances employ local dramatic and story telling traditions to ensure that the life saving educational messages reach the audience in a way that is relevant to their daily lives, and therefore most likely to encourage individuals to make choices that lead to a healthy life. S.A.F.E. performances challenge the stigma and discrimination surrounding HIV/AIDS, and by promoting compassion, honesty and open discussion aim to improve the environment that PLWHA (People Living With HIV/AIDS), their families and carers live in. At the centre of all S.A.F.E. narrative plays is a hero who is HIV positive that the audience grows to love ; performances are followed by testimonials from PLWHA who encourage community members to be compassionate to sufferers and to come forward for testing and treatment; facilitated community discussion ensues, and public health workers answer questions from the audience disseminating vital information regarding preventative measures and treatment services. Leaflets explaining HIV and condoms are then distributed. Collaborating hospitals have reported a three to fourfold increase in patient attendance at VCT (Voluntary Counseling & Testing) following S.A.F.E. tours.
 The HIV epidemic in Kenya has decimated the population, hitting the young, income generating section of society hardest. It has undermined the economic, social and family structures in Kenya, with the most severely affected being those who can least afford the economic consequences of the epidemic. The Government of Kenya estimates that the national prevalence of HIV is 7%, while UNAIDS, UNFPA and the World Health Organisation estimate the prevalence rate to be as high as 15% nationally with peak areas as high as 37% (the third highest prevalence rate in the world).
Feedback from participants show that the communities are more ready to discuss the issues surrounding HIV/AIDS after S.A.F.E. performances, with some community members encouraged to take immediate action i.e. reporting cases of rape, identifying and supporting needy sufferers within their neighbourhoods, and attending VCT. Although S.A.F.E. is not a service provider, S.A.F.E.'s community educators are well placed to bridge-build between the community and local clinics and help people to access the services that are available, particularly testing and treatment.
“Drama in pre-colonial
Kenya was not an isolated event. It was functional and part of the
life of a people. Drama was an entertainment…it was a moral
instruction and was also a strict matter of life and death. This drama
was not performed in a building set aside for the purpose. It could
be a fireplace anywhere – where there was an empty space.” Ngugi wa Thiong’o
|
|
|
