This issue of The Drum Beat focuses on the use of puppets and puppetry for development. In addition to articles examining strategic approaches to puppetry for development and resources to support the implementation of puppetry projects, this issue includes programmatic examples that demonstrate how puppets can address issues related to intergenerational connections, general and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, democracy and governance, and human rights.

USING PUPPETRY FOR DEVELOPMENT

1. Puppet Theatre to Explore Voter Awareness - Tanzania

In 2000, Small World Theatre (SWT) collaborated with Tanzanian performers to find out what prevents people, particularly women in economically poor communities, from participating in elections by voting and standing as candidates. The project used drama - participatory theatre - as a research tool. The main focus was on uncovering attitudes and constraints to women's participation in the democratic process in the light of the upcoming (October 2000) multi-party election (the first multiparty election was in 1995). In addition to drumming and singing, the performance featured life-sized puppet characters created by the community through the research process; these characters told stories that the people were thought to be able to relate to - such that they could be entertained while also learning crucial information and being stimulated to take action.

Contact Ann Shrosbee info@smallworld.org.uk

2. Emergency Contraception Initiative - United States

Using the internet, Advocates for Youth encourages young people to take an active role in advocating at local, state, and national levels for their right to receive emergency contraception (EC). To cite two examples of this type of e-activism, the initiative developed a "A Puppet Parable of Politics & Polemics" that asked young people: "Who's fighting for your rights? Did you know that young women, regardless of age, in more than 30 countries around the world have access to emergency contraception (EC) without a doctor's prescription? But, not here in the United States!" Young people who log onto the programme website are able to watch a short puppet activist film on these issues. A 2nd e-film is designed to stimulate young people to engage in advocacy to make EC available without a doctor's prescription for all women; it is a "spoof" of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s decision to require this prescription. Viewers are provided with links to further information, and encouraged to email their friends to share the links. An online campaign toolkit is designed to help youth get creative about stimulating their peers to take action.

Contact Nicole Cheetham nicole@advocatesforyouth.org OR information@advocatesforyouth.org

3. Art for Social Change - Play Against Violence - South-East Europe

This programme provides training opportunities to professionals in Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Yugoslavia who are active in the performing arts, music, visual arts, and photography, as well as educators, psychologists, and social workers, and young victims of violence. The training component of the programme is designed to develop already-existing abilities among professional artists and to prepare them to work with young people confronted with violence, hopefully in the process reviving these victims' self-esteem and confidence. Puppet therapy, playback theatre, music and dance therapy, psychodrama of fairy tales and dramas, and theatrical games are part of these training activities.

Contact nneykov@redhouse-sofia.org

4. Puppet Power Team - Namibia

Initiated in 1999, this project is carried out by a 6-member group that uses puppets and performance to disseminate information on HIV/AIDS in an informal and often humourous way. The themes of the shows revolve around how HIV/AIDS is contracted, how it can be prevented, and how certain behavioural patterns can increase the chances of getting infected. Having performed in schools, mines, companies, and villages throughout the country, organisers claim that the team has become almost a household name in most parts of Namibia. During the act there is an interaction between the audience and the performers. Organisers say that this interaction is then carried on by the audience and their families - in both urban and rural communities - when they go home. The team works to break the barriers of illiteracy and language when delivering their message to the audience; each member of the team can speak up to 4 languages.

Contact Essack-Kauaria Razia secgen@redcross.org.na

5. Puppets for Health Education - South Pacific

In 2003, Gary Friedman Productions launched a programme using puppetry to look at sexually transmitted infections (STIs), HIV/AIDS, and other sensitive health problems and to nurture understanding and acceptance of preventative messages within diverse populations in the South Pacific. In 2003, organisers conducted a 10-day workshop to expand the puppetry groups in Fiji by including 3 rural groups from Labasa, Lautoka and Sigatoka, as well as those puppeteers already operating at the national branch in Suva. Guest speakers at the workshop discussed different issues - HIV/AIDS, STIs, and common drugs used on the islands - that the puppeteers might both include in their performances and also integrate into future efforts to empower community and peer-group educators. Participants then attended a performance by a Suva puppetry group. After the performance, members of the community, including the Police Chief, welcomed the performers and audience and gave feedback to the puppeteers in order to improve the accessibility of their prevention messages.

Contact Gary Friedman gary@africanpuppet.com

6. One Hander - South Africa

This play uses puppetry, poetry, music, and drama to explore options other than sexual intercourse for releasing sexual tension. Performed by 2 actors and puppeteers and with a focus on masturbation as a means to help combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, the play is made up of a series of short scenes depicting different life situations. The use of language in the play is minimal; instead, the play uses music to reach out to audiences of various language groups.

Contact Macebo Mavuso sisonkearts@hotmail.com

7. Generation 1995 Theatre Project - United Kingdom

This initiative introduced elementary school children, through an Artist in Residence programme, to puppetry as a means of communication to explore intergenerational issues. Children were given the opportunity to collaborate with elderly people on 3 puppet plays they co-created. The artist worked with selected classes to create shadow puppets as part of the curriculum. The children were involved in constructing the stories, rehearsing, and performing for the rest of the school. The success of the 3 shows, which toured other schools and day centres for the ageing, led the way to more programmes of this kind in secondary schools.

Contact Small World Theatre info@smallworld.org.uk OR enquiries@genx.org.uk

See also:

8. Creativity of Estonian Children - Estonia

9. HIV/AIDS Workplace and Local Community Education Programme - India

10. Community Health and Awareness Puppeteers (CHAPS) - Kenya

11. Generation 1997 Theatre Project - UK

EVALUATING PUPPETRY AS A MEDIUM FOR COMMUNICATION

12. Role of Puppetry in the Dissemination of Culturally Sensitive Messages in HIV/AIDS Associated Behaviour Change Communication

by Timon Choro

This presentation explores the use of puppetry as a medium for communicating health and development messages in Kenya, based on the experiences of the Africa Alive! project. According to the presenter, puppetry has proved effective in delivering messages on sensitive topics such as HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), gender issues, female genital mutilation, environmental conservation, hygiene, adolescent reproductive health, peace creation, etc. According to this presentation, puppetry is a preferred communication strategy because it helps to facilitate discussion on issues that are normally considered embarrassing. It is non-partisan, and gives people a chance to look at themselves and their behaviours in an abstract way. It is also entertaining, and can attract the attention of diverse audiences.

13. Local Puppets Put Across Message of Family Planning

This article shares information about a national puppetry festival in India and explains how puppet shows are helping to pass along messages of family planning. 'Banjarbali bachcha band,' the puppet show illustrated as an example in the article, uses a humourous story to convey a strong social message of curbing population explosion.

14. "Beyond Gut Feeling" Report on the arepp: Theatre for Life Evaluation Project 2002-2004

by M. Nell & J. Shapiro

This evaluation project aimed to move beyond "gut feeling" to a more rigourous and comprehensive evaluation of the impact of African Repertory Educational Performance Programme (AREPP): Theatre for Life in increasing a sense of self-efficacy in the school-going youth with whom it works. There was clear evidence that the AREPP interventions do increase a sense of self-efficacy. In addition, the cross-tabulations and qualitative input provided information about context and learner differences that will enable AREPP to improve its presentations and the way it embeds its work at the local level.

15. Puppets in Entertainment-Education: Universal Principles and African Performance Traditions as a Model for Interaction

by Dr. Marie Kruger

This paper explores the use of puppetry in entertainment-education (EE). The author finds that qualities of traditional African theatre - which blend the puppet as visual symbol with other performance disciplines (song, dance and music) - and the universal puppetry principles of motion, representation, reduction, distortion, exaggeration and simplification - which interact to create a larger than life and intensified form of communication - can be incorporated into EE to create meaningful interaction between performers and their audiences. According to Kruger, socio-cultural message transmitted through entertaining puppetry performances can inspire an openness to change, experimentation and innovation, which has the ability to mobilise and educate.

16. Testing Action Media and Entertainment Education with Autistic Children

by Jugbaran Nazliand & Eliza Melissa Moodley

This paper explores the origins, implementation, and efficacy of an intervention on HIV/AIDS and sexuality education with autistic children. The intervention made use of entertainment-education strategies, using puppet shows, theatre and music to educate autistic pupils at a school in Durban, South Africa. Specifically, a puppet show was used to impart information on pregnancy, its cause and prevention; HIV transmission and prevention; and the differentiation between good touches and bad touches. The characters for the puppets were an inquisitive, naive young girl, an older brotherly-type figure with a large repository of knowledge, and a thug. Humour was used to sugarcoat the serious messages, and to initiate a rapport with the children.

SUPPORT RESOURCES

17. Introduction to Simple Puppetry Techniques: Participatory Puppet Projects for Classroom and Community Activities

From the arepp: Theatre for Life (a creative educational theatre organisation which produces repertory tours that travel throughout South Africa providing interactive, social life-skills education to school-going youth), this publication provides illustrated, step-by-step guidelines on choosing puppets, making puppets, and setting up educational entertainment plays with puppets.

18. Growing Up: A Video Module Series on RSH [Reproductive and Sexual Health] for Young People

Designed to be used in facilitated settings with groups of young people within a long-term RSH intervention, the series has been designed around 2 trilogies of films, the first directed at 9-14 year olds, and the second at a 15+ age group. Each set is accompanied by printed support materials for the facilitator. The 3 films in the first trilogy, entitled Growing Up/Badhte Hum and for ages 9-14, combine puppetry, role plays, interviews with young people, animation and sing-along songs in a mix of entertainment and information.

19. Puppets with a Purpose: Using Puppets for Social Change

This online resource offered by UNICEF includes excerpts from a print publication and video, also available for ordering online. Excerpted sections include: Why Puppets?; Puppets with Power; Qualities of Puppets; Puppets in Indonesia; Puppets in Iran; and Puppets in Hong Kong.

20. AfricanPuppet.com

Details the results of work on the part of Gary Friedman Productions to help Kenyans overcome their prejudices and find ways to connect with each other.