News
Street Theatre in HIV Education Programme
The Association of Evangelical Churches in St. Vincent and the Grenadines has conducted a highly successful programmed on HIV, focusing on education about the disease, testing, and reducing stigma and discrimination. The tools used were street theatre, testing for HIV and training persons to conduct workshops in their own communities.
On July 24 the first two street theatre performances were conducted to rave reviews from observers and not a little amount of real life drama as some persons in the communities got a bit too involved in the performances.
In three more communities five more performances were conducted with some 270 persons seeing them.
Canvassing took place after each dramatic presentation where literature and referral cards were distributed. Along with the dramas and canvassing, HIV rapid testing was done in each community (141 persons in total getting tested with one known HIV case). This was done as it was felt and advised that people would be ready to get tested in the community in which they were.
The following week in each community workshops were held with the largest turnout occurring in Barrouallie and the smallest in Layou. Each community had its varied challenges but each was an exciting, fact-filled experience for all concerned.
Further training took place in training trainers to conduct HIV workshops with an aim to reduce the occurrence of stigma and discrimination throughout St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
