Festivals of educational puppetry, conducted in public places like parks, feature 20-minute stories rooted in the reality of Kenyan life. One play depicts a rich man swindling poor villagers into paying for water they once collected free of charge; another involves a father trying to marry off his 14-year-old daughter.

HIV/AIDS education is a central component of live performances that take place in the slums. CHAPS members beat drums, whistle, wave placards, and hit various instruments in the tune of various cultural beats of the major communities that inhabit the slum to attract attention. Once the residents gather, they are grouped according to age and gender. Various types of puppets are used deliver suitable information to each category of audience about HIV/AIDS. CHAPS puppeteers also visit surrounding schools to disseminate AIDS messages.

CHAPS recently organised Edupuppets, an international festival held in Nairobi. Puppetry professionals from Europe, the United States, and South Africa gave performances and led workshops for puppeteers and teachers on such topics as scriptwriting and puppetmaking. Two German puppeteers ran an intensive two-week workshop in which Kenyans created an entire performance - including puppets, set, and script - from scratch, and then performed it at the workshop's culmination. Participants were taught how to make puppets from cheap materials - plastic water bottles, broom handles, and chicken wire. These participants are thus enabled to teach others about the craft of puppetry.

Environment, Health, HIV/AIDS, Gender.

The Family Planning Private Sector (FPPS), an international organisation advocating for population control through contraception, brought puppetry technology to Kenya in the early 1990s. With the support of the African Research Programme (AREP), two FPPS employees trained in South Africa. CHAPS grew out of this training.

Organisers note that, in rural parts of Africa, many people are illiterate and have no access to radio or television. Puppetry builds on African performance traditions to entertain while it educates.

Organisers hope that the private school teachers who attended Edupuppets will help convince teachers in Kenya's government schools, where much learning is by rote, that puppetry is a useful tool.