Healthlink Worldwide

Overview

A travelling circus of Guatemalan clowns called Proyecto Payaso, Colectivo Atz’anem k’oj is working with local communities to promote safe sex and communicate HIV and AIDS information. They use a lively and innovative brand of street theatre and perform to young people within marginalised communities.

The clown’s techniques are successful in breaking the taboos surrounding sex and sexuality in Guatemalan culture. They present clear information, for example on how HIV is transmitted and how it can be prevented, in an entertaining and informal manner.

The performances empower their audiences who can then make informed choices regarding sexual and reproductive health.

Healthlink Worldwide has been working with Proyecto Payaso, Colectivo Atz’anem k’oj since 2001. At this time a study on the sexual health of socially excluded young people was commissioned. The study highlighted the need to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS issues and develop ways of informing communities in which there is little formal education or access to health services.

Comic Relief has agreed three years of funding for Healthlink Worldwide and Proyecto Payaso, Colectivo Atz’anem k’oj. This is enabling the clowns to increase their audience as they take the show into taking it to new areas of Guatemala and to other Latin American countries.

The expansion of the project work also includes developing a number of educational workshops and performing street theatre, including communities

• with high populations of seasonal migrant workers,
• in border areas and port towns,
• in prison and remand centres, and;
• in rural and urban areas.

Initially, members of Proyecto Payaso, Colectivo Atz’anem k’oj visit a community and establish key contacts. A show and series of group workshops then take place. Follow-up visits are made a few months later to assess the impact of the work on the community.

Youth peer educators
The clowns encourage young people to form networks of youth peer educators. Residential training covering subjects such as sexual health and communication through performing arts is offered to the young people to enable them to participate in performances and communicate with other young people about HIV and AIDS. Follow up work includes two month face-to-face training in street theatre in the young people's communities, after which the young people themselves write a script and perform in and around their home towns.

Targeted information materials
Low rates of literacy among indigenous young people mean they often have little access to health information materials. As part of the project youth peer educators disseminate information in their local communities. Messages must be targeted at local populations in a way that both challenges cultural prejudices and proposes acceptable alternatives so that communication about HIV and AIDS awareness, safe sex, and support for people living with HIV is effective.

Drama on the radio
As well as providing visual learning materials, the clowns are involved in delivering radio-spots and developing local radio soap operas. These can be a particularly effective method of reaching a widely dispersed rural audience.

The clowns have developed essential messages in Qeqchi - a language spoken in several hundred communities in the highlands and in the tropical wetlands northeast of the country. The messages specifically broach the topic of discrimination against people with HIV and AIDS and how HIV is transmitted.

Scholarships for clowns
The clowns are supporting eight international scholarships for individuals working in the field of HIV education or in the performing arts. The scholarship programme brings together professionals who work with the clowns for three months. During this time they are exposed to all aspects of the programme and they receive support in developing proposals and identifying funding opportunities. At the end of the programme they can then adapt ideas for their home countries.

Performance skills
Healthlink Worldwide is supporting Proyecto Payaso, Colectivo Atz’anem k’oj to manage the different elements of project. In July 2003 the clowns attended a residential workshop in Barcelona to develop their performance skills with community based organisations specialising in cowning and street theatre, as well AIDS organisations. Healthlink Worldwide will also work with the clowns using Quest, Healthlink’s capacity-building training programme, and we are continuing to raise the groups profile overseas.

Although Proyecto Payaso, Colectivo Atz’anem k’oj is a small organisation it has the potential to have a far-reaching impact on communities often overlooked in sexual health programmes. By developing their relationships with both state and community organisations the clowns will be able to reach many different people, (especially those excluded from mainstream campaigns) with their unique and innovative communication strategy.