Making Waves

Stories of Participatory Communication

for Social Change

THE LILAC TENT

1998 Bolivia

BASIC FACTS

TITLE: The Lilac Tent

COUNTRY: Bolivia

FOCUS: Reproductive health, environment

PLACE: Villages in three geographic areas ofthe country

BENEFICIARIES: 21 Municipalities

PARTNERS: SERVIR, Project Concern International, USA (PCI), Centro de Promoción Agropecuaria Campesina, Bolivia (CEPAC)

FUNDING: Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs, U.S.A. (JHU/CCP), USAID

MEDIA: Interactive, video, publications, theatre, Puppets

SNAPSHOT

People of all ages are lining up outside of a huge lilac tent recently installed at the main square of the village. This is not a visiting circus although it's fun, it is not a school although it's educational, this is something new and different. Everyone is curious about living the experience of learning about sexuality and reproductive health through interactive games, images, audio-visual shows and live music. Groups of ten at at time are allowed inside the tent. Each visit will last less than one hour but there will be plenty to do while it lasts.

Take the giant figures of two men and two women, cut on wood so participants will be able to hold them and improvise a dialogue on the relationship between the two. This is an icebreaker, but it also introduces topics as gender and sexuality. A facilitator will help with pertinent questions before leading the group to the next area in the tent where participants will collectively play with a large puzzle learning to distinguish bad from good practices on issues related to the environment and reproductive health. If the pieces are correctly positioned, a poster-sized healthy child will appear; if not, the likeness of a sick child will appear.

Discussion, of course, is key to solving the puzzle in the right way. Next is an area where participants will learn about maternal mortality without realising it from the beginning. A number of large tiles are placed on a table. Participants have to distribute smaller tiles that relate to the topics of the larger ones. A collective discussion should lead them to reach an understanding about health care during pregnancy. The group moves to another area where the participants, through the use of fabric dolls that can be placed on a large flannel screen, will develop a problem tree. Various topics will be identified as the causes of maternal mortality: lack of access to health services, women's roles in society, and education and economic constraint among others.

Last but not least, a trip through a dark tunnel of sensations leads participants to the outside of the tent, as a reminder of a birth. In many senses, it is a birth of knowledge and awareness on issues of reproductive health. Later in the day, when the night falls, a live music concert will take place outside of the tent, for all the participants and the community.

DESCRIPTION

The Lilac Tent expanded to the rural areas during the outreach of three previous reproductive health campaigns. From October 1998 to March 1999, three travelling lilac-coloured circus tents reached two hundred thousand people in 21 municipalities of three distinct geographic regions of Bolivia: the highlands, valleys, and tropics. Most attended the activities outside the tent, but 34,710 men and women were active participants inside the tent.

The process that culminates with the installation of The Lilac Tent is as important as the tent itself: it ensures community participation and sustainability. It involves advocacy, promotion, training and social mobilisation. A set of about fifty different activities take place in the community before the arrival of The Lilac Tent

In a first stage, NGOs working in a particular geographical region of the country are identified and contracted to be the institutions responsible for coordinating the activities. Actually, three NGOs from the PROCOSI (Programa de Coordinación en Salud Integral, Bolivia) network were identified from the beginning,one for each region: SERVIR, PCI and CEPAC. A team from the designated NGO visits the local authorities to request support. The municipal council, staff from the health centre, schoolteachers and the military, among others are invited to join a coordinating group. About twenty people will be trained to become facilitators of The Lilac Tent.

Producers from local radio stations receive special training and materials to develop educational programming on reproductive health issues. A flip chart was developed to introduce topics, questions and answers to the producers; teachers in the schoolroom can also use it. Another group is trained on mural painting, an average of six murals were painted in each of the 21 municipalities.

After three weeks of training activities that contribute to involve the various institutions of the community, a team of eight people sets up the three-ton Lilac Tent, while the twenty trained facilitators prepare to receive the visitors. Guided by the facilitators, groups often participants go inside the tent through different settings, environments and visual exercises. It is an intense experience. Those that wait outside can watch video screenings of original Lilac Tent feature productions, such as Amanecer or Decisiones or puppets shows. Then they may attend the evening shows.

The circuit inside the tent ends with a visit to the library, publications such as the series of comics Las Historias de Yoni are given free to participants.

Every evening a platform outside the tent serves as a stage for live music, dances and theatre. Hundreds of people from the community gather around for entertainment. Local groups perform along with young artists from Santa Cruz, Cochabamba or La Paz, brought specially for the occasion.

By the end of the third day between 1,500 and 3,000 people have gone inside the tent to a rich learning experience using group dynamics, toys, images and, above all, participation. The tent will fold immediately after and move to the next location. Three days may seem a very short period of activity sometimes it is extended considering that it took about two weeks to organise the whole thing, to train the facilitators, and to put up the tent. Nonetheless, the tent is only the culmination of the guided process. After that, the community will have the materials and the facilitators to sustain the effort of discussing and debating reproductive health issues in the school, at the health centre, or within the families.

The cost of operating the tent in each municipality is about US$7,500. In 1998, US$400,000 were spent, out of the 1 million allotted to the project.

BACKGROUND & CONTEXT

In 1969 Yawar Mallku a famous feature film by Bolivian Director Jorge Sanjinés showed a rebellion of peasants against United States (perceived to be "Peace Corps") volunteers that were sterilising women. This dramatic statement against United States policies of birth control in an under-populated country as Bolivia think about the population of New York City in a territory almost three times the State of California contributed to many years of total rejection of population issues. It is only through the knowledge of reproductive health that the topics are back on the national agenda.

According to a John Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs self-assessment, "since 1986 reproductive health strategies developed with technical support from JHU/CCP and funds from USAID illustrated the value of a continuous series of carefully calibrated campaigns that moved from cautious advocacy to countrywide action".

In ten years the strategy of promoting family planning services in the main urban areas, evolved to maternal and child health concerns in rural communities. By 1994 an extensive multimedia campaign was launched in four major cities. A new logo, radio and TV spots, plus expanded services partially contributed to wipe away the negative images associated with family planning. In 1996 the emphasis of a third campaign was to promote access to services and methods, by highlighting maternal mortality.

The Lilac Tent is the fourth campaign and takes into account the lessons from the previous three. It is the first to reach rural areas of Bolivia. A Technical Committee that included NGOs, the private sector, government, and international cooperation agencies working in the field of reproductive health, designed the strategy.

ASPECTS OF SOCIAL CHANGE

The Lilac Tent and the three previous reproductive health campaigns might not be responsible, but the statistics compiled by DHS (Demography and Health Survey) and Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) of Bolivia, show that important progress has been achieved in the last ten years. The Infant mortality rate has gone down from 96/1 to 67/1; birth deliveries in health facilities went up from 40 percent to 56 percent; prenatal care went up from 45 percent to 70 percent. The stability of the national economy also has a lot to do with it.

The family planning objectives of the strategy were also achieved. DHS statistics show that the knowledge of at least one modern birth control method went up from 67 percent to 87 percent; the use of condoms rose to 2.6 percent from next-to-nothing; IUD's to 11.1 percent from 4.8 percent and the pill went up to 3.8 percent from 1.9 percent. The statistics above illustrate that the population is increasingly interested in reducing maternal and infant mortality rates, and not concerned so much about birth control.

The Lilac Tent project is basically addressed to young people that speak Spanish, have a certain level of basic education, and are less resistant to change. The new Bolivian generations have better opportunities to be informed and more chances to make their own decisions.

One important element brought by The Lilac Tent is the collective approach. The strategy is no longer aiming only at face-to-face counselling, but also involving the whole community. Its focus is less on "persuasion" and more on promoting discussion and analysis. The community is actively involved, no longer a passive receptor of decisions made by others.

MEDIA & METHODS

The multimedia approach of The Lilac Tent is what makes the project so innovative. The tent itself is the environment where things happen, a reference space, and an enabling environment. The methods include interactive games, live music, video-tape, publications, theatre, puppets, etc. Through drawings and brief dialogues, various situations are depicted, leading to counselling and education on the use of condoms, contraceptive devices, STDs, etc. Specially made video productions support similar views.

CONSTRAINTS

The first word that comes to mind when referring to the obstacles is sustainability. Being as it is a project funded and driven by JHU/CCP, it has a period of development with a start-date and an end-date.Once funding is exhausted, who will continue moving the three-ton equipment from one province to another in the vast territory of Bolivia? The largest investment is already completed: the construction of the tents, the acquisition of audio-visual equipment, the training of staff... Nonetheless, expenditures are in the order of US$7,500 for each time a Lilac Tent is installed at a new place.

Another problem is that the tent only stays three days in each municipality, and often this is not enough time for all the people to go through it. A large number only participate in the recreational activities that take place outside the tent, which are not as effective and educational as those that take place inside the tent.

REFERENCES

The printed information listed below was complemented through conversations held in La Paz (October 1999) with Project Coordinator Marcos Paz, and with video producer Carola Prudencio.

Video productions reviewed: Diálogo al Desnudo (1996), Amanecer (1998), Piel de Luna (1997), Decisiones (1998), and Hablemos en Pareja (1998). All deal with reproductive health and have been locally produced for this project or for previous stages of the communication strategy.

Publications:

Carpa Lila as it is called in Spanish, prints its own bulletins and educational materials. Among the later is the series of comics Las Historias de Yoni

Las ONGs y las Carpas Lila by Marcos Paz In J &G,Revista de Epidemiología Comunitaria, Julio Diciembre 1998. La Paz, Bolivia. Pp. 4-8.

La Carpa Lila: Una Experiencia Innovadora en Comunicación para la Salud por Marcos Paz. In Opciones, Revista sobre Salud Sexual y Reproductiva, Marzo 1999. La Paz, Bolivia.Pp.17-20.

Estrategia de IEC para el Área Rural Subcomité Nacional de IEC,1997.Pp.32.

Bolivia's Lilac Tent: A First in Health Promotion In Communication Impact, John Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP), Baltimore. April 1999.

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