AIDS prevention - puppets teach it!
Nipuni WIMALAPALA
The Zonta Club II of Colombo, an organization of business and
professional females working together for the betterment of women and
children, in collaboration with AIDS Foundation of Lanka (AFL) and the
International Labour Organization (ILO) presented a puppet show which
was especially created to communicate about HIV and AIDS recently.
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Puppet
performance |
The show was held to note the World AIDS Day which falls on December
1 every year. 'Getting to zero' is the theme selected by the World AIDS
Campaign to commemorate this year's World AIDS Day. This puppet show is
another endeavour to achieve 'Zero new HIV infections'. They used
Mahadanamutta and his new disciples to share information about HIV
prevention and transmission. The importance of knowing about your HIV
status and the importance of social acceptance of people with HIV were
emphasized in the puppet show.
The show was directed by Sulochana Dissanayake, supported by a
creative team that included renowned voice artists Upul Alwis and Gayan
Manokumara of the percussion group 'Naadro'. The script was written by
Satirist Wimalanath and Giri Harja III of Indonesia created the show's
puppets, under the guidance of world famous puppet maestro, Asep
Sunandar Sunarya.
It is estimated that there are nearly 3000 people living with HIV in
Sri Lanka and data from the National STD/AIDS Control Programme show a
gradual increase in new infections reported in the past few years. More
than 15 million people worldwide live with HIV - approximately 530,000
women die each year during pregnancy or childbirth.
Zonta Club II is dedicated to create awareness on HIV through drama
and puppetry shows which are considered to be very powerful
communication tools. The puppet shows were held in many places such as
government institutions, banks, export processing zone and universities.
Besides, Zonta Club II of Colombo does many programmes related to
Women and children to uplift their living status. The ongoing projects
are the Sukitha Vocational Training Centre for Special Need women in
Horana to enhance the training skills and improve teaching techniques in
vocational training. The women are from 16 to 32 years underprivileged
with marginalized learning capacity. There are some education programmes
done by Zonta Club II together with the Education Ministry.
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