DramAidE
(Drama in AIDS Education)
CCMS also engages in community outreach with DramAidE (Drama in AIDS Education), which is also funded by JHHESA. DramAidE’s work involves directly working with communities across the country to educate them about HIV/AIDS at a grassroots level. In addition, DramAidE facilitates extensive tertiary programmes encouraging positive behaviour change among students. CCMS supports DramAidE through its research and teaching component, drawing the DramAidE as a case study for practical insight into health and development communication. At the same time, CCMS contributes its research findings to enhance the various community engagement initiatives, facilitated by DramAidE. CCMS students use DramAidE as a research site to conduct fieldwork for their projects and DramAidE benefits from the mentorship and project feedback it receives from the staff and students at CCMS.
In the Ripples of Empowerment project, DramAidE assisted CCMS in undertaking its community engagement activities and CCMS contributed through networking students who worked as researchers and volunteers on DramAidE’s projects. A major involvement of CCMS in community engagement efforts with DramAidE’s was the public Scrutinize campaigns hosted for students. This campaign encourages people to ‘Scrutinize their partner’ before engaging in a sexual relationship. The themes of the campaign include issues such as unprotected sex, alcohol abuse, and transactional sex, and how they can lead to HIV. Many CCMS students participated in facilitating and conducting evaluations on these campaigns about HIV/AIDS, to have a better understanding of the virus and how to prevent it.
2011:
- CCMS’ will continue to contribute to community engagement in the form of research. Currently a Masters student is engaged in a reception analysis of the animated Scrutinize advertisements.
- Many students registered in the DCC and the CFPD course will continue to offer their time as volunteers on the DramAidE projects and also use the project as a data collection site.
- CCMS partners with DramAidE to offer a participatory community engaging discussion on the role of drama in education for a group of 22 American students (School for International Training Study Abroad Programme)
- DramAidE staff also advise on relevant student projects.