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Turning
hard stories from life into teaching materials  |
| Some of the actors in Qui est responsable? ('Who is responsible?'), a film designed to teach young people to make the right choices in life. The film, shot in Kigali, Rwanda, originated from dance and drama work with AIDS orphans and was developed by Norwegian Church Aid and the United Bible Societies. Annick Kanyamuneza, who plays Suzanne, the main character, is on the left. Photo: Agderposten/Erik Holand (RWADJ-9.JPG) |
There are several of these orphans’ groups in Kigali, formed for mutual support by families bereft of one or both parents. Their membership runs into the hundreds.
“Many HIV organisations started out as ordinary support groups,” says Ms Raen. “They ended up as Christian groups because they feel they need the strength that comes through prayers and fellowship. There is so much Christianity in these people – most of them are members of churches.”
As well as helping each other, they have been an invaluable creative resource to Ms Raen and to others: after all, they have been directly affected by AIDS and can offer stories of hard, real-life experiences which can be incorporated into the teaching materials; and they are also a section of the audience whom the teaching aims to reach, and so the resources can be tested among them.
The youngsters with acting or dancing skills have helped actually bring stories to life as stage plays and films – something which shows the young people themselves, as well as others, that, in spite of their circumstances, they have a great potential if they can be given an opportunity and some direction.
For example, one story Ms Raen was told concerned a young woman who was a hard-working college student. Innocently tricked into a sexual encounter, she not only became HIV-positive but was shunned by her friends and family.
Recognising the educational potential of the story, Ms Raen turned it into a case history in the booklet Where Is the Good Samaritan Today? Later, she developed it as a stage play for HIV/AIDS education in Rwanda and last year it was turned into the 40-minute film, finished in 2004, called Qui Est Responsable? L’Histoire de Suzanne (‘Who is Responsible? The Story of Suzanne’), which has been welcomed by the Churches in Rwanda and is being dubbed into various languages.
Young people from an orphans’ association called Amahoro (‘Peace’) were involved from the beginning. Ms Raen came into contact with the group because Norwegian Church Aid, an NGO and partner of United Bible Societies in East Africa, had worked with them. They acted in the stage version she developed as an HIV/AIDS teaching vehicle, and, after some professional drama coaching, they took some of the roles in the film.
This is just one example. All the stories she has used in her teaching have come originally from the HIV/AIDS associations she was led to work with in Rwanda. She got valuable information that she could adapt and use by going to their meetings, as she puts it, “to listen and to write”.
Good ideas
“It was a long process,” she says. “The idea was to create material that gave basic information about HIV/AIDS, combined with appropriate biblical passages. I wrote down these ‘good ideas’ to be discussed by church leaders, HIV/AIDS workers and HIV/AIDS organisations. They welcomed the idea, but none of them seemed to feel the calling to write the material!
“Finally, a Norwegian pastor, Sindre
Eide, started working with youth groups in Eritrea to develop Take
Charge, a booklet of Bible studies for young people which focuses
on adopting the kind of behaviour which will result in an HIV/AIDS-free
lifestyle. And I found myself working with church people and HIV organisations
in Rwanda to develop the booklet called Where is the Good Samaritan
Today?, which has now broadened into the Where is the Good Samaritan
Today? outreach package.” (WR 390/27 - 02.05) 