DramAidE (Drama AIDS Education)

DramAidE is involved in a variety of projects that use drama, dance, art, peer education, television and radio spots and adverts, and research to examine various aspects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. These include:

The Johns Hopkins Health and Education South Africa (JHHESA) Project
This project, funded by Johns Hopkins Health and Education South Africa (JHHESA) employs several different strategies. One aspect is the training of health promoters (young people living openly with HIV on higher education campuses) to form and sustain support groups, promote voluntary counseling and testing (VCT), and engage in face-to-face dialogue with students to break stigma and promote positive living. The project also works with faith-based organisations to implement HIV prevention programmes, as well as with community organisations that work with orphans and vulnerable children. Another aspect of this programme is the AAA-HA! Project (Applied Arts for Awareness of HIV/AIDS) that works in tertiary institutions to engage arts students in the conscious creation of art for HIV awareness. A final arm of the JHHESA project is the Scrutinise campaign, that involves a series of animated television adverts around HIV prevention, as well as training health promoters on campuses to runs HIV/AIDS themed arts festivals.

Act Alive Project
The main aim of the project is to initiate and sustain a communication process that develops the capacity of schools to create a healthy physical, emotional, and spiritual environment in which children can live, learn, and play. The DramAidE facilitator works with teachers and scholars to generate action media in order to promote good health with special reference to prevention of HIV infection, and the care and support of people living with AIDS. These products or materials are culturally based and include songs and dances, plays, poems, and posters. This approach is part of the life skills and HIV/AIDS education programme provided in schools. Participating schools also create health clubs that organise their own health-promotion programmes.

Youth for Change Project
The project uses the same strategies as the Act Alive Project for preventing violence in schools. Through working with students, teachers, and parents, DramAidE seeks to understand the presence of violence in South African schools, and by exploring concepts of human rights, self esteem, and life-skills, seeks to reduce this violence.

Owakho Owami (My Child is Your Child) Project
The project involves working with rural communities to build circles of support and to improve services to orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs). A further component of the Owakho Owami campaign involves working specifically with faith-based organisations to meet the needs of OVCs. This project includes the concept of recruiting Godparents and developing caring schools.

Peer Education Training Project
This programme assists teachers in dealing with HIV/AIDS in their schools, both with learners and with teaching staff.

Dance4Life partner project
DramAidE partnered with the local branch of the international organisation Dance4Life to assist with their Skills4Life project, and the Heart Connection Tour. The Skills4Life project is a series of workshops in schools that focus on life-skills training and HIV/AIDS. The Heart Connection Tour (HCT) is a high-energy, informative, and interactive performance tour, which involves peer educators and young people living with HIV and AIDS in a Tour Team which travels to schools.

NDA Project
The aim of the project was to develop a participatory training programme for learners from schools in the Uthungulu (specifically the Mzimela/ Ongoye) district of KwaZulu-Natal. Learners were trained in ethnographic research methods and following this were assigned to five core project/interest areas, namely: The Environment (flora and fauna); Cultural History; Music, Dance and Drama; Traditional Food; and Visual Arts and Crafts. The overall objective was to highlight the role of culture, the arts and cultural tourism, creating income generating projects for community development and poverty alleviation.

Greater Good Project
The programme aims to work for the promotion of positive lifestyles among youth at risk of HIV/AIDS, and among youth already infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, through a multi-media and communication strategy. The project uses interactive media to mobilise communities within the Mthonjaneni municipality to undertake campaigns around issues related to sex and sexuality, HIV/AIDS, gender, and cultural practices that are harmful to youth development. The Action Media approach is used where the intended audience makes media which include plays, songs and dances, posters, and murals.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Baseline Study and Risk Assessment in the Higher Education Sector
DramAidE is assisting CADRE (Centre for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation) to conduct a study at Higher Education Institutions across the country to determine the levels of HIV infection on campuses, and to determine students attitudes towards HIV/AIDS and risk.

DramAidE research project in conjunction with CCMS
DramAidE staff and students from the University of KwaZulu Natal’s Centre for Culture and Media Studies (CCMS) are undertaking research on university campuses. The research aims to develop an understanding of responses to the ABC (Abstinence, Be Faithful, Condomise) HIV/AIDS prevention strategy and messages in the Higher Education Sector in South Africa. The research is designed to provide input into an advocacy framework to influence future policy and practice for the prevention of infection with HIV among university students.