November 2005 Newsletter
Rwandans and Americans in Partnership (RAP)
Against HIV/AIDS, Contre Le SIDA
Newsletter
November 2005
1. RAPSIDA Produces Two-Hour Musical Radio Drama for Rwandan Ministry of Ed.
2. RAPSIDA Performs 6 Months of Youth HIV Prevention Theatre Trainings for CARE International (including RAPSIDA’s first theatre competitions!)
3. RAPSIDA Creates 10 Minute Film “Ingabire” for the 1st Rwandan Film Festival—and FilmAID International takes “Ingabire” to Refugees in Kenya
4. RAPSIDA Runs the Scenarios from Africa Contest in Rwanda
5. Gallery 138 in NYC raises $25000 for RAPSIDA
6. ActionMedeor grants RAPSIDA 28000 Euros for 2006 Schools Program
7. Trained by RAP, Girimpuhwe Produces Marvelous HIV/AIDS Solidarity Pins
8. RAPSIDA’s Jesse Hawkes in Synapse Theatre Company’s talk-back session
9. RAPSIDA Recognized by the CNLS
10. RAPSIDA and SCOP (a new youth group called Schools and Communities in Partnership founded by a RAP Trainee!) will present Forum and Musical Theatre on World AIDS Day 2005 at the Umutara Provincial Ceremonies
1. RAPSIDA produces Musical Radio Drama for the Ministry of Education:
At the request of the Ministry of Education, and in collaboration with RWAPAS, a local media firm, RAPSIDA recently completed 4 episodes of a radio drama for secondary school students and out-of-school youth. The two-hour mini-series is called Ishuri Ryacu (Our School) and is based on research conducted in the schools which revealed a high prevalence of unprotected sex and student/teacher relationships.
Ishuri Ryacu tells the story of a new girl at school, Antoinette, who has a history of receiving bad marks in math. At the new school, her poor performance continues, and she enters into a sexual relationship with her math teacher in exchange for good marks. Antoinette later learns that she has a STD and that she should get a test for HIV.
In the sub-plot, the head-girl at school, Claire, has just started dating the sporty, musical, and loving Manzi. Manzi asks Claire to sneak out of school to visit him at his home, presumably to have sex. Despite the fact that she is advised by her friend Justine to wait until marriage, Claire really loves Manzi and prepares to go and have sex with him with a condom. However, on her journey to Manzi’s, Claire sees Antoinette going into a hotel (with the teacher), and Claire loses her appetite for sex on that night. Manzi respects Claire’s wish, sings her a loving song instead, and they do not have sex.
Julius, Trying-Out for the Radio Drama (don’t worry, he got a part!)
Queen and Kayitesi, Composing Music for the Radio Drama
Ishuri Ryacu breaks new ground in Rwandan educational entertainment because it incorporates musical theatre into what is traditionally a dialogue-only medium here. For example, the opening song, “Umunsi Mushya, Gutangira Kwiza” or “It’s a New Day, A Fresh Start,” establishes the energy of the first day at school and shows Antoinette’s arrival at the school—she literally sings about her arrival at school. Later, Antoinette sings the ironically-entitled “Kwihangana” (Patience) as she thinks about whether she should have sex with her teacher. At the end of the song, she has convinced herself to accept his offer:
“He’s really not that old,
And from what I’ve been told,
Other girls do it,
And they seem fine.”
As noted before, Antoinette learns that she is not fine after having sex with her teacher.
From start to finish, the writing and production of Ishuri Ryacu took us 4 weeks. It was acted entirely by students guided by local Radio experts and RAPSIDA staff. The program is entirely in the Kinyarwanda language and went on the air in early September, running on 5 different radio stations.
When school is back in session, we will go into the schools to do focus groups to evaluate the appeal of the programs, using our CDs to replay the programs for them. The initial response--in living rooms, minibuses, and on the street--was very positive. RAP Trainers Seth, Sulemani, and Rose, who played the roles of “Gaspard,” “Gregoire,” and “Antoinette,” respectively, have been treated like celebrities when we work in the field and announce that they were the youth singing and acting on the airwaves!
2. RAPSIDA completes Youth Theatre Trainings for CARE International:
In June, RAPSIDA completed 5 months of training for 16 out-of-school youth theatre groups in the provinces of Gitarama and Umutara, in collaboration with CARE International. The process began in January with a Leader Training Seminar, including a specially created forum theatre and musical theatre performance called “Ndi Hano Ndi Umfubjyi (Here I am, I’m an Orphan)” presented to the trainees by seasoned RAP Actors. Follow-Up Training sessions ensued with the full membership of each group in their local communities until the end of May.
Over 300 youth received training in musical and forum theatre techniques, culminating in several performances in each district for a total of over 4000 people in April/May. The musical, interactive plays focused primarily on issues that are of importance to orphans / vulnerable children.
In October, we revisited the groups to offer the groups a chance to compete with one another, giving us an opportunity to monitor and evaluate their progress since May. During the competition, an additional 2500+ people were sensitized by the clubs; 3% of all audience members got on-stage physically to get involved in the play through Forum Theatre or to address the actors/characters directly in Character Chat; 9.4% of all audience members became engaged in post-show discussions. Additionally, we discovered that all but one of the plays that we had helped to design had actually improved during the time when RAPSIDA was not there anymore!
Highlights of October Monitoring and Evaluation Visit of Groups Trained For CARE
v Nyarurema, Umutara: Club PJLS used a Candlelight Ceremony to open their play at a secondary school. During the ceremony, the lead actor (20 yrs old, and head-boy of the school) confessed that in actuality he had a group of 5 friends, 3 of whom have died of HIV. This brought an immense feeling of seriousness to the secondary school audience members, who showed their sympathy through traditional mouth noises and head shaking back and forth. Then the play began and the audience remained seated and interested despite the fact that lunch was being served directly behind them.
v Ntenyo, Gitarama: Club Ejo Heza’s 1st Place winning play Bira Shoboka (It’s Possible): The play opens with the group of actors entering energetically from the audience until one of the boys realizes that he forgot his guitar for the play. The other actors get angry with him and kick him away from their group. He sings sadly about how he wishes he had a guitar so that he could sing a song about Preventing HIV/AIDS among youth with his group. However, while he is singing sadly, regretting the lost guitar, he realizes that he actually is singing successfully without a guitar, and therefore he does not need a guitar! He cheers up, makes guitar noises with his voice (nanananananana) and makes an “air” guitar with his hands. Before too long, the rest of the group hear his beautiful song and join him. It is a moment of pure musical theatre bliss as they all mimick guitars in a line at the front of the stage, and sing the rousing song about Preventing HIV.
v Ntenyo, Gitarama (cont.): A hushed silence overcomes the audience when the popular, risk-taking main character in the play, Phillippo, discovers that he has HIV. Phillipo lets out rage and frustration, and finally rests his head in his hands, smothering his face in silence. This is followed by a regret scene, where Phillipo addresses the audience directly, saying, “I should have listened to you, and you, and you,” because, indeed, the audience members he was addressing had been on stage earlier during forum theatre trying to convince him to make a good choice, but he had refused to listen.
v Ntenyo, Gitarama (cont.): After the regret scene, family and friends in the play try to console Phillipo. He acknowledges and appreciates their love, and their willingness to accept him as an HIV+ person, but he also says, “first and foremost you must help me tell others to avoid what has happened to me, because life without HIV is easier than life with HIV.” Trying to acknowledge the humanity and potential of people who have HIV is very difficult in a play that is primarily trying to make a strong argument for prevention based on the serious risks posed by HIV, but Club Ejo Heza pulled it off with sophistication and artistry.
v Kayumbu, Gitarama: Before the play began, Club Marenga’s MC addressed the audience and made everyone shake hands with his or her neighbor to wish him/her the strength and power to prevent HIV and make it to the landmark year 2020.
v Kamonyi, Gitarama: The imaginary bicycles from Ruyumba and the imaginary minibus from Ruhango were physical theatre highlights; the audience became entranced with the movements on-stage.
3. RAPSIDA Creates 10 Minute Film “Ingabire” for the 1st Rwandan Film Festival—and FilmAID International takes “Ingabire” to Refugees in Kenya
RAPSIDA was asked by the Rwanda Cinema Center (RCC) to create a short film on the topic of HIV/AIDS in Rwanda for the first Rwandan Film Festival, held between 16 and 31 March, 2005. Funded/produced by RAP and RCC, the film is called Ingabire (Gift) and is based on one of RAPSIDA’s musical plays, with music composed by Queen Mutoni from Gabiro High School.
On the Set at Kabuga High School, with members of Rwanda Cinema Center
The girls who Discriminate against Ingabire
Ingabire is the name of a young girl who walks into the school yard one morning to encounter the stares and negative words of the youth and teachers who discriminate against her, because she has HIV and she is on ARV treatment. Gradually, the youth and teachers begin to hear Ingabire’s song of despair, and they take personal responsibility for going to help her. Resisting, even physically, the negative influence of their peers, the responsible youth go to stand and sing with Ingabire, soon drawing the rest of the peers into the courtyard to sing as well. Filmed on location at Kabuga High School, Ingabire toured Rwanda in the Rwandan film festival and has recently been picked up by FilmAID International to be shown in refugee camps in Kenya and other parts of East Africa. Population Services International (PSI) has also expressed interest in using the movie in its mobile cinema outreach here in Rwanda.
4. RAPSIDA Runs the Scenarios from Africa Contest in Rwanda: Scenarios from Africa (http://www.scenariosafrica.com/) is a contest for youth below age 25 to write short scenarios for 5 minute films on HIV/AIDS. When RAPSIDA went to the 4th International Conference on Educational Entertainment in Cape Town in September 2004, we met with a representative from Scenarios who asked us to spearhead the contest here in Rwanda in 2005. Between February and April, RAPSIDA promoted the contest in schools and youth clubs. The Rwandan Ministry of Youth Sports and Culture endorsed the contest and helped to distribute information over the radio and at youth centers. The contest is focused on getting people to talk about HIV who would not normally to do so, and, on getting people to talk about HIV in new, challenging ways, such as in groups of mixed genders, or from the perspective of the opposite gender. The total number of submissions from Rwanda was over 400, and the winner of the contest has yet to be announced.
5. Gallery 138 in NYC raises $25000 for RAPSIDA’s School Curriculum Develpmt:
At a fundraiser/auction in June, artist Brookie Maxwell and her team at Gallery 138 in New York City raised approximately $25000 for RAPSIDA’s HIV/AIDS Prevention program in Secondary Schools. For more information, please visit http://www.gallery138.com/. We cannot thank enough Gallery 138 and the participating artists (including Yoko Ono!) for their spirited hard work in support of RAPSIDA’s programs. And special thanks to Rwandan Ambassador to the UN, Stanislas Kamanzi, and First Secretary, Pascal Nyamulinda, for attending the event too!
The Gallery 138 Fundraising Event, which was attended by the Rwandan Ambassador to the UN, Stanislas Kamanzi, and First Secretary, Pascal Nyamulinda!
Artist/Gallerist Brookie Maxwell (ctr.) with Gallery 138 staff, Jennifer Cestone (left) and Rachel Abrams (right)
6. ActionMedeor grants RAPSIDA 28000 Euros for 2006 Schools Program:
RAPSIDA will be supported by ActionMedeor (www.medeor.org), to create a schools program in the province of Kigali-Ngali, working with 6 schools and their local associations of people living with HIV/AIDS for the entire school year. The aim is to create an emotional HIV-Prevention theatre culture at High Schools—motivated by monthly inter-school competitions—and to integrate People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) into this culture in ways that will benefit them psychologically and financially (such as serving food made by the PLWHA at the performances, or buying costumes and prizes made by the PLWHA). This will also benefit community, as stigma reduces. Thanks so much to Barbara Kuehlen, Inga Seifert, and everyone at Action Medeor for not only their financial support but also their spirit of partnership and collaboration.
7. Trained by RAP, Girimpuhwe Association Produces Marvelous HIV Bead-Pins
Displaying the Pins: Girimpuhwe member Isaac (left) with President Jean and HIV Coordinator Michel
The Girimpuhwe Association of PLWHA in Kabuga has successfully completed numerous sets of anti-SIDA pins following pin-making trainings from RAPSIDA. The association has purchased the sewing machines it earned from hosting the RAPSIDA conference last year in Kabuga, and they are scheduled to begin training on the machines soon. The association uses the income from these projects for nutritional and transportation support to association members who are on ARV (Anti-Retroviral) Treatment at the local health center.
8. RAPSIDA’s Jesse Hawkes in Synapse Theatre Company’s talk-back session: Following the March 21 performance of their Off-Broadway play The God Botherers (which is about international development workers living and working overseas) Jesse Hawkes phoned in from Africa to NYC for the talk-back session with the audience to discuss the challenges and joys of working in Rwanda on HIV/AIDS prevention through theatre.
9. RAPSIDA Recognized by the CNLS: The National Commission in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS (CNLS) is the governing body for all HIV/AIDS activities in Rwanda. Recently the commission asked all organizations working in the field of HIV/AIDS to be approved by the CNLS prior to continuing services and RAP was granted the certificate to continue working!
10. RAPSIDA and SCOP to present Forum and Musical Theatre on World AIDS Day (Dec 1) 2005 at the Umutara Provincial Ceremonies SCOP (Schools and Communities in Partnership) is a new youth group that combines in-school and out of school youth in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and which was founded by a RAP trainee named Peter Munyarukiko. We are very proud of Peter for initiating this and we are proud to be sponsoring and assisting with this work. Combining in-school and out-of-school youth is essential for change in Rwanda, where many people do not have access to secondary education for lack of school fees. In September, RAPSIDA Collaborated with Volunteer Services Overseas (VSO) and Youth Club PJLS to host Forum Theatre and Musical Theatre trainings for SCOP at its inception. For a full report and evaluation of the September training (prepared wonderfully by Irena Pearse from VSO), just ask!
End of the News
Thanks for reading! We’ll be back in touch again soon. But, in the meanwhile, we would love to hear from you!
rapsida@yahoo.com
Against HIV/AIDS, Contre Le SIDA
Newsletter
November 2005
1. RAPSIDA Produces Two-Hour Musical Radio Drama for Rwandan Ministry of Ed.
2. RAPSIDA Performs 6 Months of Youth HIV Prevention Theatre Trainings for CARE International (including RAPSIDA’s first theatre competitions!)
3. RAPSIDA Creates 10 Minute Film “Ingabire” for the 1st Rwandan Film Festival—and FilmAID International takes “Ingabire” to Refugees in Kenya
4. RAPSIDA Runs the Scenarios from Africa Contest in Rwanda
5. Gallery 138 in NYC raises $25000 for RAPSIDA
6. ActionMedeor grants RAPSIDA 28000 Euros for 2006 Schools Program
7. Trained by RAP, Girimpuhwe Produces Marvelous HIV/AIDS Solidarity Pins
8. RAPSIDA’s Jesse Hawkes in Synapse Theatre Company’s talk-back session
9. RAPSIDA Recognized by the CNLS
10. RAPSIDA and SCOP (a new youth group called Schools and Communities in Partnership founded by a RAP Trainee!) will present Forum and Musical Theatre on World AIDS Day 2005 at the Umutara Provincial Ceremonies
1. RAPSIDA produces Musical Radio Drama for the Ministry of Education:
At the request of the Ministry of Education, and in collaboration with RWAPAS, a local media firm, RAPSIDA recently completed 4 episodes of a radio drama for secondary school students and out-of-school youth. The two-hour mini-series is called Ishuri Ryacu (Our School) and is based on research conducted in the schools which revealed a high prevalence of unprotected sex and student/teacher relationships.
Ishuri Ryacu tells the story of a new girl at school, Antoinette, who has a history of receiving bad marks in math. At the new school, her poor performance continues, and she enters into a sexual relationship with her math teacher in exchange for good marks. Antoinette later learns that she has a STD and that she should get a test for HIV.
In the sub-plot, the head-girl at school, Claire, has just started dating the sporty, musical, and loving Manzi. Manzi asks Claire to sneak out of school to visit him at his home, presumably to have sex. Despite the fact that she is advised by her friend Justine to wait until marriage, Claire really loves Manzi and prepares to go and have sex with him with a condom. However, on her journey to Manzi’s, Claire sees Antoinette going into a hotel (with the teacher), and Claire loses her appetite for sex on that night. Manzi respects Claire’s wish, sings her a loving song instead, and they do not have sex.
Julius, Trying-Out for the Radio Drama (don’t worry, he got a part!)
Queen and Kayitesi, Composing Music for the Radio Drama
Ishuri Ryacu breaks new ground in Rwandan educational entertainment because it incorporates musical theatre into what is traditionally a dialogue-only medium here. For example, the opening song, “Umunsi Mushya, Gutangira Kwiza” or “It’s a New Day, A Fresh Start,” establishes the energy of the first day at school and shows Antoinette’s arrival at the school—she literally sings about her arrival at school. Later, Antoinette sings the ironically-entitled “Kwihangana” (Patience) as she thinks about whether she should have sex with her teacher. At the end of the song, she has convinced herself to accept his offer:
“He’s really not that old,
And from what I’ve been told,
Other girls do it,
And they seem fine.”
As noted before, Antoinette learns that she is not fine after having sex with her teacher.
From start to finish, the writing and production of Ishuri Ryacu took us 4 weeks. It was acted entirely by students guided by local Radio experts and RAPSIDA staff. The program is entirely in the Kinyarwanda language and went on the air in early September, running on 5 different radio stations.
When school is back in session, we will go into the schools to do focus groups to evaluate the appeal of the programs, using our CDs to replay the programs for them. The initial response--in living rooms, minibuses, and on the street--was very positive. RAP Trainers Seth, Sulemani, and Rose, who played the roles of “Gaspard,” “Gregoire,” and “Antoinette,” respectively, have been treated like celebrities when we work in the field and announce that they were the youth singing and acting on the airwaves!
2. RAPSIDA completes Youth Theatre Trainings for CARE International:
In June, RAPSIDA completed 5 months of training for 16 out-of-school youth theatre groups in the provinces of Gitarama and Umutara, in collaboration with CARE International. The process began in January with a Leader Training Seminar, including a specially created forum theatre and musical theatre performance called “Ndi Hano Ndi Umfubjyi (Here I am, I’m an Orphan)” presented to the trainees by seasoned RAP Actors. Follow-Up Training sessions ensued with the full membership of each group in their local communities until the end of May.
Over 300 youth received training in musical and forum theatre techniques, culminating in several performances in each district for a total of over 4000 people in April/May. The musical, interactive plays focused primarily on issues that are of importance to orphans / vulnerable children.
In October, we revisited the groups to offer the groups a chance to compete with one another, giving us an opportunity to monitor and evaluate their progress since May. During the competition, an additional 2500+ people were sensitized by the clubs; 3% of all audience members got on-stage physically to get involved in the play through Forum Theatre or to address the actors/characters directly in Character Chat; 9.4% of all audience members became engaged in post-show discussions. Additionally, we discovered that all but one of the plays that we had helped to design had actually improved during the time when RAPSIDA was not there anymore!
Highlights of October Monitoring and Evaluation Visit of Groups Trained For CARE
v Nyarurema, Umutara: Club PJLS used a Candlelight Ceremony to open their play at a secondary school. During the ceremony, the lead actor (20 yrs old, and head-boy of the school) confessed that in actuality he had a group of 5 friends, 3 of whom have died of HIV. This brought an immense feeling of seriousness to the secondary school audience members, who showed their sympathy through traditional mouth noises and head shaking back and forth. Then the play began and the audience remained seated and interested despite the fact that lunch was being served directly behind them.
v Ntenyo, Gitarama: Club Ejo Heza’s 1st Place winning play Bira Shoboka (It’s Possible): The play opens with the group of actors entering energetically from the audience until one of the boys realizes that he forgot his guitar for the play. The other actors get angry with him and kick him away from their group. He sings sadly about how he wishes he had a guitar so that he could sing a song about Preventing HIV/AIDS among youth with his group. However, while he is singing sadly, regretting the lost guitar, he realizes that he actually is singing successfully without a guitar, and therefore he does not need a guitar! He cheers up, makes guitar noises with his voice (nanananananana) and makes an “air” guitar with his hands. Before too long, the rest of the group hear his beautiful song and join him. It is a moment of pure musical theatre bliss as they all mimick guitars in a line at the front of the stage, and sing the rousing song about Preventing HIV.
v Ntenyo, Gitarama (cont.): A hushed silence overcomes the audience when the popular, risk-taking main character in the play, Phillippo, discovers that he has HIV. Phillipo lets out rage and frustration, and finally rests his head in his hands, smothering his face in silence. This is followed by a regret scene, where Phillipo addresses the audience directly, saying, “I should have listened to you, and you, and you,” because, indeed, the audience members he was addressing had been on stage earlier during forum theatre trying to convince him to make a good choice, but he had refused to listen.
v Ntenyo, Gitarama (cont.): After the regret scene, family and friends in the play try to console Phillipo. He acknowledges and appreciates their love, and their willingness to accept him as an HIV+ person, but he also says, “first and foremost you must help me tell others to avoid what has happened to me, because life without HIV is easier than life with HIV.” Trying to acknowledge the humanity and potential of people who have HIV is very difficult in a play that is primarily trying to make a strong argument for prevention based on the serious risks posed by HIV, but Club Ejo Heza pulled it off with sophistication and artistry.
v Kayumbu, Gitarama: Before the play began, Club Marenga’s MC addressed the audience and made everyone shake hands with his or her neighbor to wish him/her the strength and power to prevent HIV and make it to the landmark year 2020.
v Kamonyi, Gitarama: The imaginary bicycles from Ruyumba and the imaginary minibus from Ruhango were physical theatre highlights; the audience became entranced with the movements on-stage.
3. RAPSIDA Creates 10 Minute Film “Ingabire” for the 1st Rwandan Film Festival—and FilmAID International takes “Ingabire” to Refugees in Kenya
RAPSIDA was asked by the Rwanda Cinema Center (RCC) to create a short film on the topic of HIV/AIDS in Rwanda for the first Rwandan Film Festival, held between 16 and 31 March, 2005. Funded/produced by RAP and RCC, the film is called Ingabire (Gift) and is based on one of RAPSIDA’s musical plays, with music composed by Queen Mutoni from Gabiro High School.
On the Set at Kabuga High School, with members of Rwanda Cinema Center
The girls who Discriminate against Ingabire
Ingabire is the name of a young girl who walks into the school yard one morning to encounter the stares and negative words of the youth and teachers who discriminate against her, because she has HIV and she is on ARV treatment. Gradually, the youth and teachers begin to hear Ingabire’s song of despair, and they take personal responsibility for going to help her. Resisting, even physically, the negative influence of their peers, the responsible youth go to stand and sing with Ingabire, soon drawing the rest of the peers into the courtyard to sing as well. Filmed on location at Kabuga High School, Ingabire toured Rwanda in the Rwandan film festival and has recently been picked up by FilmAID International to be shown in refugee camps in Kenya and other parts of East Africa. Population Services International (PSI) has also expressed interest in using the movie in its mobile cinema outreach here in Rwanda.
4. RAPSIDA Runs the Scenarios from Africa Contest in Rwanda: Scenarios from Africa (http://www.scenariosafrica.com/) is a contest for youth below age 25 to write short scenarios for 5 minute films on HIV/AIDS. When RAPSIDA went to the 4th International Conference on Educational Entertainment in Cape Town in September 2004, we met with a representative from Scenarios who asked us to spearhead the contest here in Rwanda in 2005. Between February and April, RAPSIDA promoted the contest in schools and youth clubs. The Rwandan Ministry of Youth Sports and Culture endorsed the contest and helped to distribute information over the radio and at youth centers. The contest is focused on getting people to talk about HIV who would not normally to do so, and, on getting people to talk about HIV in new, challenging ways, such as in groups of mixed genders, or from the perspective of the opposite gender. The total number of submissions from Rwanda was over 400, and the winner of the contest has yet to be announced.
5. Gallery 138 in NYC raises $25000 for RAPSIDA’s School Curriculum Develpmt:
At a fundraiser/auction in June, artist Brookie Maxwell and her team at Gallery 138 in New York City raised approximately $25000 for RAPSIDA’s HIV/AIDS Prevention program in Secondary Schools. For more information, please visit http://www.gallery138.com/. We cannot thank enough Gallery 138 and the participating artists (including Yoko Ono!) for their spirited hard work in support of RAPSIDA’s programs. And special thanks to Rwandan Ambassador to the UN, Stanislas Kamanzi, and First Secretary, Pascal Nyamulinda, for attending the event too!
The Gallery 138 Fundraising Event, which was attended by the Rwandan Ambassador to the UN, Stanislas Kamanzi, and First Secretary, Pascal Nyamulinda!
Artist/Gallerist Brookie Maxwell (ctr.) with Gallery 138 staff, Jennifer Cestone (left) and Rachel Abrams (right)
6. ActionMedeor grants RAPSIDA 28000 Euros for 2006 Schools Program:
RAPSIDA will be supported by ActionMedeor (www.medeor.org), to create a schools program in the province of Kigali-Ngali, working with 6 schools and their local associations of people living with HIV/AIDS for the entire school year. The aim is to create an emotional HIV-Prevention theatre culture at High Schools—motivated by monthly inter-school competitions—and to integrate People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) into this culture in ways that will benefit them psychologically and financially (such as serving food made by the PLWHA at the performances, or buying costumes and prizes made by the PLWHA). This will also benefit community, as stigma reduces. Thanks so much to Barbara Kuehlen, Inga Seifert, and everyone at Action Medeor for not only their financial support but also their spirit of partnership and collaboration.
7. Trained by RAP, Girimpuhwe Association Produces Marvelous HIV Bead-Pins
Displaying the Pins: Girimpuhwe member Isaac (left) with President Jean and HIV Coordinator Michel
The Girimpuhwe Association of PLWHA in Kabuga has successfully completed numerous sets of anti-SIDA pins following pin-making trainings from RAPSIDA. The association has purchased the sewing machines it earned from hosting the RAPSIDA conference last year in Kabuga, and they are scheduled to begin training on the machines soon. The association uses the income from these projects for nutritional and transportation support to association members who are on ARV (Anti-Retroviral) Treatment at the local health center.
8. RAPSIDA’s Jesse Hawkes in Synapse Theatre Company’s talk-back session: Following the March 21 performance of their Off-Broadway play The God Botherers (which is about international development workers living and working overseas) Jesse Hawkes phoned in from Africa to NYC for the talk-back session with the audience to discuss the challenges and joys of working in Rwanda on HIV/AIDS prevention through theatre.
9. RAPSIDA Recognized by the CNLS: The National Commission in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS (CNLS) is the governing body for all HIV/AIDS activities in Rwanda. Recently the commission asked all organizations working in the field of HIV/AIDS to be approved by the CNLS prior to continuing services and RAP was granted the certificate to continue working!
10. RAPSIDA and SCOP to present Forum and Musical Theatre on World AIDS Day (Dec 1) 2005 at the Umutara Provincial Ceremonies SCOP (Schools and Communities in Partnership) is a new youth group that combines in-school and out of school youth in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and which was founded by a RAP trainee named Peter Munyarukiko. We are very proud of Peter for initiating this and we are proud to be sponsoring and assisting with this work. Combining in-school and out-of-school youth is essential for change in Rwanda, where many people do not have access to secondary education for lack of school fees. In September, RAPSIDA Collaborated with Volunteer Services Overseas (VSO) and Youth Club PJLS to host Forum Theatre and Musical Theatre trainings for SCOP at its inception. For a full report and evaluation of the September training (prepared wonderfully by Irena Pearse from VSO), just ask!
End of the News
Thanks for reading! We’ll be back in touch again soon. But, in the meanwhile, we would love to hear from you!
rapsida@yahoo.com
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